


The Hotel Inspector

by Armbar_Nation



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:46:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7054231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Armbar_Nation/pseuds/Armbar_Nation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel and Brie Bryan run a failing hotel business. When Brie applies for them to appear on a new TV show, can they turn their fortunes around and avoid bankruptcy? What disasters will the hotel inspector discover?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction - A Successful Application

The loud crash of a plate smashing on the floor was the final straw for Daniel Bryan. There was no way he could go on anymore. A large stack of bills, some of them final demands for payment, sat on the table in front of him. It was lunch time and he was one of only three people sitting in his restaurant; a fact which further compounded his misery. Two customers in the place on a Wednesday lunch time. How had it ever gotten to be this bad? How had he managed the place so badly?

"You knocked it off there! You fucking clean it up!" A woman screamed in the kitchen, her voice clearly audible even through the closed door. The two customers tried to pretend that they hadn't heard. Despite being the only people to order food, their starters had so far taken more than twenty minutes to arrive, and now one of them presumably lay on the kitchen floor.

When they had opened their own hotel and restaurant, Daniel and his wife, Brie, couldn't have been happier. It had been their dream business. Daniel had even insisted on naming it Brianna's, in her honour. But now, it was failing, and it was taking their home and their life savings with it. Within weeks, they would be bankrupt and living on the streets, and he felt powerless to stop it. It was too late. Right here and now, it was over.

Deciding that enough was enough, he resigned himself to the fact that he had to go and break his wife's heart, and therefore his own as well. With a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach, he got up and headed for the office, having seen Brie in there ten minutes earlier. As he walked past the door to the kitchen, the woman with the loud and angry voice charged through it and nearly barged into him.

"I've had about all I can take," she barked at him on her way past, as if whatever disagreement she had just had was his fault entirely. Before he could reply, she had stormed out of the restaurant in the direction of the reception area and the main entrance. Daniel wondered if she would walk out and that would be the last he would see of her. Unlikely, given that her husband was the Head Chef.

A minute later, Daniel reluctantly walked into the office. He was ashamed to even look his wife in the eyes. "Brie? I..."

"I don't believe it!" Brie exclaimed, turning away from her computer screen and smiling at him. "We got accepted!"

"Accepted for what, babe?" Daniel asked, assuming she had applied for another loan, as if further delaying the inevitable would help.

"That show I told you about," she beamed. "The Hotel Inspector. I applied for it and they accepted us! I just got an email from them. We're going to be episode number one. They're going to come save us, Daniel!" She stood up from the desk, rushed over to him and embraced him tightly. Anyone watching her would have thought that their problems were already behind them.

Knowing that was far from the truth, Daniel wasn't sure if even this TV show and its mystery hotel inspector could save Brianna's at this point, but it was at least some kind of hope to cling to for now. "That's great, babe!" He'd managed to sound more excited than he felt. "Who is this hotel inspector?"

"I don't know. That's kind of the point, I assume. They'll reserve a room and then show up with a camera crew at some point in the next couple of weeks. We'd better go tell everyone. We need to make sure to be at our best now for when they come. You know they're going to go through this place from top to bottom."

'Jesus Christ,' Daniel thought with a sigh. 'They don't know what they've gotten themselves into.'


	2. Check-in

"My name is Ronda Rousey. I've worked in the hospitality industry since I was seventeen. I'm a self-made millionaire, and I now own five star hotels in five countries, across three continents. For the next ten weeks though, I have a very different challenge ahead of me. I'm not going to be opening a brand new hotel for myself; I'm going to be visiting existing, failing businesses to see what they're doing wrong, and to try and use my expertise to help them turn their fortunes around. I am The Hotel Inspector."

After finishing giving her her opening piece to the camera, Ronda gestured out of the front window of her car at a wooden sign which was around twenty yards away. It had one word painted on it, in uninspiring red lettering: Brianna's.

"This is my first challenge. Brianna's is a hotel and restaurant, owned and run by Daniel Bryan and his wife Brianna. Although they've been open for less than two years, they're running up a serious amount of debt. Their occupancy rates are tragic, and customer feedback, from what I've been told, is appalling. Already, before I've even set foot in the place, I can see problems. First of all, I drove straight past the place the first time I came down the road. I didn't see it. The hotel is set back from the road, on the other side of the parking lot, and look at that sign. It's too small. You can barely see it with cars parked in the street, and even if you can see it, it doesn't even tell you what the place is. Brianna's is nice name, but Brianna's what? Brianna's Hotel and Restaurant? Brianna's Fruit and Veg? Brianna's Auto Parts? Give me a fucking clue. Not a good start. Then there's the second problem: When you do find the parking lot, you see that it's almost empty. If I pull into a hotel parking lot and find it like that, alarm bells start ringing. Not a good first impression for guests."

Ronda shook her head, looking a lot less than impressed. "Well, I suppose I should go and check in. This should be an experience."

* * *

With the camera crew following along behind, Ronda pushed open one of the main entrance doors and walked into the reception area of Brianna's. The poor choice of decor and colour scheme gave the place a dingy feel. There was no one in sight aside from the receptionist, who was sitting half turned away from the desk, holding an iPhone out in front of her and posing for a selfie, with a pout and a ridiculous amount of cleavage on display. Ronda glanced back at the camera and shook her head slightly, as if to say, "What the fuck am I witnessing?"

Wheeling her case along behind her, Ronda walked up to the reception desk; a fact which seemed to go unnoticed by the receptionist. The selfie was priority number one; that was obvious. Ronda cleared her throat quietly. With obvious reluctance, the receptionist turned her chair around to face Ronda. Only then did she seem to notice the camera crew, and she quickly set her phone aside, as if doing so quickly enough might mean that no one had seen it. "Help you?"

Remaining polite, Ronda said, "I have a reservation. Rousey."

Without saying anything, the receptionist, who was wearing a name tag which bore the name Nicole, looked at her computer screen and began clicking away on her mouse. "Come on you fucking... There we are. Rousey. Uh... You're in two twelve." She produced a registration form and a key card and set them in front of Ronda. "I need you to fill that in. Anything else I can get you?"

"There is one thing I'd like you to do, Nicole," Ronda said, pointedly looking at the name tag and the cleavage.

"What's that?"

"Use some fucking manners!" Ronda yelled at her, causing Nicole to almost jump out of her chair. "That was without doubt the worst welcome I've ever had to a hotel in my life! And put your tits away, for God's sake! You're working a reception desk, not filming a fucking porno!"

"Yes, ma'am," Nicole stuttered, looking panicked. "Uh... Welcome to Brianna's. I'm Nicole."

Ronda smiled patronisingly. "I got that."

A minute later, the registration form was complete. There had been no offer of a bell boy delivering Ronda's luggage to her room, so she wheeled it to the rickety looking elevator herself, leaving Nicole to watch her depart with a sour expression on her face.

* * *

In the elevator, a female camerawoman who was also the show's narrator asked, "Ronda, what's your first impression of Brianna's?"

Looking a little stunned, Ronda shook her head and said, "It looks like a real shit hole, and if the rest of the staff are as appallingly trained and ill mannered as our friend Nicole... Well, there are uphill battles and there are things that are a waste of time."

* * *

Downstairs, another camera followed Nicole, who, having waited until Ronda was in the elevator, had got up and ran through the empty dining room and crashed through the door into the office, where Daniel was working on the computer. "She's here. Shit. The fucking inspector woman is here." Her words came out rapid fire.

Daniel took a deep breath, but when he spoke, he still sounded flustered. "Right. Uh... Great. Right. Let me come and meet her."

"She's gone up to her room," Nicole said. "She already yelled at me for no fucking reason." Aside from the bad language, she sounded like she was a fifth grade student complaining to a teacher.

"Calm down," Daniel said timidly, looking anything but calm himself. "I'm sure she'll come down soon once she's had a look around her room. I know Brie had a word with the housekeeping girls the other day, so I'm sure everything will be just fine."


	3. Room Inspection

"This actually doesn't look too bad," Ronda said, sounding pleasantly surprised and nodding appreciatively as she walked out of the elevator into the second floor hallway. The decor was very different to the reception area, with lighter, more neutral colour schemes and soft but adequate lighting. Wheeling her case the short distance to the door marked 212, she added, "It looks like someone actually put some thought into this at least. Downstairs was dull, uninspiring, and didn't give me a nice welcome at all. Up here though, much better."

She used her key card to open the door, pushed it open, and wheeled her case inside. The spacious room had similar decor to the hallway and large windows which let in plenty of warm sunlight. One of the windows had been left slightly open, letting in a pleasant breeze. The furniture didn't look overly expensive, but it certainly wasn't cheap, and it looked to be in good condition. The bed was immaculately made up and the open curtains were arranged perfectly.

"At first glance, again, not too bad," Ronda opined to the camera. "It's not five star by any means, but this isn't a five star hotel, so there's nothing wrong with that. For the prices they're charging, this looks acceptable. That's just a first glance though. The devil is in the detail when it comes to hotel rooms. Let's have a look what lies beneath the surface and see if their housekeeping is up to scratch, shall we?"

To start, she walked over to the large wardrobe which stood in one corner of the room. "We'll start here. This is going to tell me a lot about the level of attention to detail I can expect from the rest of the room. If I run my finger across the top of this wardrobe and it comes away dirty, I'm going to start being concerned." Stretching up on tip-toe, she ran her finger along the top of the wardrobe and then held it up to the camera to display the result. It was covered in dust. "Oh dear," she said with a grimace. "Like I said, lack of attention to detail. We're going to have to go through the room with a fine tooth comb. One way to guarantee a guest will never come back to your hotel is to put them in a room that isn't spotlessly clean. Judging by this, I'd say we're going to find that this a lot less than spotless."

Resuming her inspection, she walked over to the bed and pulled back the covers. "Oh my God," she exclaimed, almost gagging at what she saw. "That's fucking vile."

The camerawoman zoomed in on a stain on the bedsheet, which looked suspiciously like semen. From out of the shot, Ronda said, "At least we know someone enjoyed a night at Brianna's. Jesus fucking Christ. How can someone make a bed with that sheet? What the fuck were they thinking?"

"Have you ever seen anything like that before in a hotel room?" The camerawoman asked, now focusing back on Ronda.

"Have I ever been in a room that's supposedly ready for a guest and found the sheet covered in jizz?" Ronda asked incredulously. "No, I haven't. If this was my hotel, I'd go find out who prepared this room right now, and I'd fire them on the spot." She pointed down at the stain. "That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in twelve years in this industry. What I'm fearing is: Will it be the most disgusting thing I find in this room?"

Walking past the camerawoman, who then followed her, Ronda said, "I'm going to have to check out the bathroom. If they can't put a clean sheet on a bed, I dread to think what they might do when it comes to cleaning a bathroom." She didn't head straight for the bathroom door though, which was just to the right of the room's entrance door. Instead, she stopped when she reached her case, laid it flat on the floor, crouch down and opened it, while saying, "I did anticipate that I might have to do something like this, so I came prepared. Or at least, I thought I had."

With a flourish, she pulled a pair of blue rubber gloves out of her case and held them up to the camera for effect. "I'm glad I decided to bring these, but now I'm wondering if I should have brought a full hazmat suit." Making an elaborate show of it, Ronda pulled on the gloves, finishing each one with a snap. "Why do I already get the feeling I might be doing this a lot this week? Well, here goes nothing," she sighed.

She stood and walked into the bathroom, the camerawoman again following along behind. Ronda turned the light on, revealing that there was a full size bath in there, with a shower and a cheap looking disposable shower curtain rather than a screen. The shower curtain was the first thing Ronda headed for, gesturing to it and saying, "This should be changed between guests, every time, without fail. I'm willing to make a bet that it hasn't been."

After climbing into the bath, she pulled the shower curtain open and groaned. "Christ. Look at this." Crouching again, she wiped a gloved finger along the bottom of the curtain and held it up to the camera, showing some kind of black gunk. "The thing's fucking moldy. It's been left closed and it's just gone..." Her voice trailed off as she moved aside so that the camera could film the mold, which was present on roughly a quarter of the curtain.

"I thought I might find it dirty, but this is revolting. How can they expect people to want to stay in their hotel when they have rooms in this kind of condition? It's not just a lack of attention to detail. How the fuck could anyone miss that? They've 'cleaned' the room without even touching the shower curtain, which means they can't possibly have cleaned the tub properly either."

Crouching down again, Ronda examined the drain and groaned again in disgust. "Oh, God. It gets worse." She began pulling human hair out of the drain. After several tugs, she held her hand out to the camera, palm upwards. Resting on it were long strands of wet, matted hair. "Unbelievable," she said, shaking her head. "Absolutely unbelievable. To have this much hair in the drain, this tub can't have been cleaned properly for weeks, maybe months. I'm going to have to get Daniel and Brie in here to see this when we're done. Before that though, I guess I'm going to have to brave looking at the toilet."

Letting the matted hair fall into the tub with a splat, she stepped back out of the bath and walked across to the toilet. She looked down at it and said, "Okay, I'm done. Look at the buffers on this toilet seat; stained, filthy. I really don't even want to lean over the thing to do this, but..." She leaned down and ran another finger underneath the rim of the bowl. Sure enough, it came away dirty. Showing it to the camera again, she said, "If I was staying here as a normal paying guest, rather than making this show, I'd be taking my case and clearing out of here right now. This lack of basic cleanliness and hygiene is totally unacceptable. I'm surprised there wasn't a three foot long log sitting in there or something."

The camerawoman couldn't help herself laughing. At that moment there was a knock on the room's main door. Saying nothing, Ronda walked out of the bathroom and opened the door. Brie was standing there, a welcoming smile on her face. "Ms. Rousey. Nice to meet you, I'm Brie. Welcome to Brianna's. I'd shake your hand but uh..." She gestured to the gloves that Ronda was wearing and laughed nervously. "That doesn't look good?"

"Call me Ronda. Come in, Brie. I'm glad you're here, because there are some things you need to see in this bathroom."

Over the next couple of minutes, Ronda walked Brie through the disaster that was the bathroom. When it was over, Brie had a mortified expression on her face and looked like she was about to cry. She walked out of the bathroom, with Ronda following along behind, and sat down on the end of the bed. "It's not like I don't tell them," she said despairingly, looking up at Ronda who had taken her gloves off and tossed them to the floor, near to her case. "I tell them all the time to make sure they do the housekeeping properly."

Looking down at her, Ronda's expression softened a little. "I'm beginning to get the impression, Brie, that one of the problems you have here is a serious lack of authority. The receptionist, she's your sister, yes? You look a lot alike, aside from the obvious."

Brie nodded and then put her head in her hands. "Nikki said you weren't happy with the welcome you got from her."

"She was sitting there taking selfies on her phone and she made it plain that my presence was an intrusion, and that was with a camera crew standing behind me. I dread to think what she's usually like."

"Daniel's told her so many times about having her phone switched on while she's working."

Sitting down beside Brie, Ronda spoke softly. "You know what I think? When I yelled at Nicole downstairs, that was the first time she'd been spoken to like that. Am I right?"

"Probably, yes," Brie mumbled and then bust into tears. "Daniel and I just aren't that kind of person. We just want to run a hotel, Ronda. It's all we've ever wanted to do."

"Come here, sweetheart," Ronda said, hugging Brie. "You've got to be able to be firm with your staff. You don't have to be nasty, but you have to be firm. If you tell your people to do something, they need to know that there will be consequences if they ignore you."

Brie didn't reply, continuing to cry into Ronda's shoulder.

* * *

Outside of the room, Ronda gave a piece to the camera.

"This place... Jesus Christ. I'm starting to get an idea what's going on here even before I meet Daniel. They're a couple of nice people who dreamed of opening a hotel; and they managed to realise that dream, the problem being that they have absolutely no idea how to actually run one. This isn't the kind of business you can run by being nice to your staff all the time. It seems obvious that they're being taken advantage of by people who don't really give a fuck about the fact that the business is failing and in danger of closing, knowing that they can get away with doing whatever the fuck they want. One of them is Brie's own sister..." Her voice trailed off and she shook her head, blowing out a deep breath and shaking her head.

"I've got to work with Daniel and Brie to show them how to assert their authority, or this place is going to go out of business. It's as simple as that. The way it is now, I can see why they have almost no guests in the hotel, but that's not the only part of this business that's failing. They have a large restaurant downstairs, which I'm told is losing more than a thousand dollars a week by itself. I guess it's time to go and get something to eat."

Gesturing back at the door to her room, she added, "That's if I can actually stomach anything after looking over that shit hole."


	4. Lunch Service

Downstairs, Ronda walked into the restaurant, where she was greeted by a young waitress who had a warm and genuine smile on her face. "Good afternoon and welcome to Brianna's. I'm Bayley. Take a seat wherever you'd like."

"Good afternoon," Ronda smiled, pleased to see some kind of professionalism at last. She looked around the almost empty restaurant as she walked over to a nearby table and sat down. In total, there were only four other people eating; two couples at different tables. As with the reception area, the decoration and furnishings, although of acceptable quality, were noticeably dark, giving the room an almost claustrophobic feel.

Bayley handed over a menu, which Ronda opened and studied as she spoke. "Bayley, my name's Ronda. I'm here to inspect the hotel, as I'm sure you're aware."

"Yes ma'am," Bayley confirmed.

"There's no need for that. You can call me Ronda."

"Okay," Bayley smiled again.

"So, I hear that the restaurant loses a lot of money. Looking at the turn out, I can see why. It's lunch time and including me you only have five people eating. That's ridiculous. Is it always like this?"

"I'm afraid so," Bayley said.

"Why is that? What's the problem?"

Bayley hesitated and gave a nervous glance around the restaurant, seeming unsure as to whether she should risk answering the question or not. "Pretty much everything," she admitted. "People complain about the food a lot. The service is slow sometimes. There are arguments, with staff and with customers."

"Christ," Ronda breathed, looking up from the menu. "You mean the staff argue with customers and with each other where customers are able to hear them?"

"Not really staff in general, just Stephanie," Bayley said quietly. "She's the Head Waitress. She hates it when people complain, especially about the food, probably because Hunter is the Head Chef. Hunter is Stephanie's husband."

Shaking her head, Ronda said, "Can't wait to meet them." Her tone conveyed that the opposite was closer to the truth. "I suppose I better try some of the food first though."

"Great," Bayley said. The smile returned again as she pulled out her order pad. "What can I get you?"

Ronda looked back down at the menu. "What's the soup of the day?"

"Today it's meatball soup."

" _Meatball_ soup?" Ronda asked, raising her eyebrows. Bayley nodded. "Okay, I'll try it. Then I'll have the lasagna, followed by the New York Strip, medium rare. I'll order a dessert too; the cheesecake with strawberry topping."

"Okay, thank you. If you need anything, my name's Bayley. Feel free to call me."

Ronda waited until Bayley had walked through the door into the kitchen before speaking to the camera. "Nice girl. I couldn't bring myself to point out that she introduced herself twice. I was just happy to see that at least one person here seems to know how to do their job properly. I'm surprised to hear that people complain about the food so often though, because I was told that Brianna's had an award winning Head Chef. The menu looks okay; it's not over-complicated at it has the right kind of foods I'd expect to find in a place like this. The meatball soup is a strange one, but maybe it'll be good? I guess I'll find out for myself soon enough."

Glancing around the restaurant again, she added, "Who came up with decoration for this place? A restaurant should be welcoming and vibrant. Walking in here makes you want to slash your wrists. What the fuck were they thinking?"

* * *

In the kitchen, Bayley read out Ronda's order to Hunter and hung up the ticket. "This is for the hotel inspector," she added, "so we need to make sure she sees the best of what we can do."

Hunter gave a dismissive grunt and read the ticket again for himself. A loud, angry female voice demanded, "Who the hell do you think you're talking to?"

Scrunching her eyes closed, Bayley said, "Stephanie, can we not do this? I'm just saying that we need to..."

A taller woman came storming aroung the hot plate and almost squared up to Bayley. "Shut up! Get over there and wash those dishes. I'll serve this inspector woman. If she has a problem with the food, she can tell me about it."

Sheepishly, Bayley headed for the sink and the huge stack of dirty plates and dishes.

Meanwhile, Hunter had stepped aside to say a few words to one of the cameras. "I don't care who this hotel inspector is," he began arrogantly. "If she's not an award winning chef like I am, she better not think she can come into my kitchen and criticise my food or how I run my line. My food is the best money can buy in this city, because I'm the best chef in the city, if not the state. I'm just that damn good. You want to talk about students of the game? I am the fucking game!"

* * *

"Here's your soup," a different, rather unpleasant voice said to Ronda as a bowl of very watery, uninspiring looking soup crashed down onto the table in front of her.

Almost jumping in surprise, Ronda looked up at the waitress. "Thank you, I guess. Sorry, your name?"

The waitress looked like she found the question offensive somehow. "Stephanie."

"I thought so." Ronda was about to say something more, but Stephanie had already turned and started walking back towards the kitchen.

"Fuck me," Ronda said to the camera. "That's some attitude problem. Do they put something in the water in this place?"

Moving onto the soup, Ronda swirled her spoon around in it for a moment and shook her head. "Look at this. Jesus Christ. I don't think I'd serve this to an animal. It's a bowl of water with a few bits of onion and bread and few pieces of grey shit which I assume are supposed to be the meatballs."

She carefully picked out one of the meatballs on her spoon and put in her mouth. Barely had she started to chew before she had to spit it back out into the soup bowl. "Ugh... That's fucking disgusting. It was like chewing a ball of rubber. A _cold_ ball of rubber at that."

Stephanie had gone and stood behind the bar, where she could watch Ronda under the pretense of cleaning some glasses. Seeing Ronda's reaction to the soup, she headed back over there. "Everything okay?"

Ronda swirled her spoon around in the soup again and then looked up at her. "Look at the state of this. It's a bowl of water with a few bits of shit and a handful of cold, rubbery tasting meatballs in it. I honestly wouldn't feed this to my dog. Who made it?"

The expression on Stephanie's face conveyed how offended she was by the remarks. "My husband made it," she said proudly. "He's the Head Chef. He's an _award winning_ chef."

"He certainly didn't win an award for this crap," Ronda replied. "Take it away, please."

It looked like Stephanie was struggling not to pour the soup over Ronda's head as she picked it up and headed for the kitchen. When she walked in there, she reported to her husband. "She says this is shit and cold and the meatballs taste like rubber."

Over by the sink, Bayley said, "That's what happens when you freeze the meatballs. People always say the same thing about the soup. We should make them fresh."

"Shut your mouth!" Stephanie roared at her. "No one is talking to you!"

Hunter had picked up the unwanted bowl of soup. "If she doesn't want it, fuck her. People come from miles around to eat my food. I don't give a fuck what she says." Rather than empty it, he angrily tossed the bowl in the trash.

This time Bayley said nothing, but glanced over at him when he claimed that people came from mile around to eat his food. Shaking her head slightly, she returned to washing the dishes.

* * *

"This is your lasagna," Stephanie said, setting it in front of Ronda and walking away before any further conversation could be attempted.

"Not very appetising, is it?" Ronda asked the camera. She pressed her fork down flat on the top of the lasgna, drawing out a rather remarkable amount of grease. After working at it with her fork for a moment she had opened it out and dug out some of the filling. "Place your bets: Hot on the outside, cold in the middle?"

Risking burning her fingers, she picked up some of the beef from the middle of the lasagna. "Stone cold, just like I thought. It's been microwaved. Fine dining at its best, huh? Greasy, microwaved lasagna. And they wonder why no one eats here? People can stay home and cook better than this themselves for a fraction of the price!"

Stephanie appeared again. This time Ronda got in first," Can you ask the chef why he microwaves his lasagna, please? It's cold in the middle."

"It's not microwaved," Stephanie snapped. "It's cooked, and it's fresh."

"It's cold!" Ronda said incredulously, her patience now wearing thin. "I could go out and buy something frozen in a store and cook it better than this! It's cold and it's disgustingly greasy. Take it in the kitchen and have him taste it."

"Right," Stephanie huffed and snatched up the plate.

When she'd gone back into the kitchen, Ronda shook her head and looked at the camera again. "That woman is something else. I don't know who does the hiring and firing around here yet, but they have something to answer for. If Stephanie is like that to all of Brianna's customers she'd be enough to drive them away without the appalling food."

Stephanie stormed back into the kitchen and slammed the destroyed lasagna on top of the hot plate. "I've just about had enough of that bitch. Too greasy, cold in the middle, she even said you'd microwaved it!" No mention was made of the fact that Ronda had wanted Hunter to taste what he'd been prepared to serve to his customer.

"I did microwave it," Hunter shrugged. "What else am I going to do with a frozen lasagna. I'm not going to fuck around cooking it am I?"

"We shouldn't even be serving frozen lasagnas," Bayley said, drying her hands on a towel near the sink. "We should be making our own. I've tried to say..."

"Go and clean out the walk-in!" Stephanie screamed at her. "No one asked for your input!"

"I can't do the cleaning and make the desserts. The hotel inspector ordered a cheesecake. I've got to start making that."

"Then do it with your fucking stupid mouth shut," Stephanie huffed.

Hunter had turned his attention to his sous chef. "Kane, I need a New York Strip."

"How do they want it?" Kane asked.

"What difference does it make with the way you cook?" Stephanie sniped at him.

* * *

"The New York Strip," Stephanie announced. This time when she set the plate in front of Ronda she seemed strangely keen to receive comments on it.

"Come on," Ronda groaned, looking at what she'd been presented with. She didn't even bother cutting into it. "I asked for medium rare. This has been fucking incinerated. It's black for God's sake! Look at it!"

"I know," Stephanie sighed, failing to completely hide the fact that she was pleased by the complaint. "That's Kane, our so-called sous chef. He basically cooks by setting fire to everything. He's totally useless."

Shaking her head, Ronda announced, "Forget the dessert, I'm done here. I think it's time I met these chefs. Can you go and get Daniel too, please? I'm surprised he's not introduced himself to me yet. I'll wait here."

Stephanie headed out of the restaurant, chuntering under her breath, "Go get Daniel. What do I look like, a fucking bellhop or something? Can't we just get that bitch out of here already? Jesus Christ. At least I know where he's going to be; hiding in the office as usual."

Sure enough, when she barged into the office Daniel was sitting in there, working on the computer, or at least making it seem like he was. "The hotel inspector wants to see you in the restaurant."

"Has she eaten?" Daniel asked, looking at her with a nervous expression on her face. "What did she think of it?"

"Kane burned her steak, or rather obliterated it," Stephanie replied bitterly. "Big surprise that was."

"I'll have to uh... speak to him... or something," Daniel faltered.

Stephanie was already on her way back out of the door, sarcastically muttering, "Yeah, that'll really show him, won't it?"


	5. The Kitchen

Although Ronda had told Stephanie that she would wait in the restaurant while she went to fetch Daniel, she had instead decided to walk through to the kitchen and meet the mysterious award winning chef who was apparently totally unable to cook to anything even close to a satisfactory standard. Walking into the kitchen, she saw Bayley working on applying the finishing touches to what surprisingly looked like a very nice cheesecake with strawberry topping. Standing beside her there was a tall, well built man with long blonde hair tied in a pony tail. The most noticeable feature about him was his almost comically enormous nose. Another even taller man with a shaven head was standing further back in the kitchen, scraping the burnt remains of something off a grill.

Bayley looked at the man beside her with a nervous looking smile on her face. "Does that look okay?"

"Not too bad," the man conceded reluctantly. "She'll probably reject it though. If she didn't like my food there's no chance she'll like yours, let's be honest." It was only at that moment that he noticed Ronda standing in the doorway. She walked over to him as he asked, "Can I help you with something?" His tone clearly indicated that her presence in the kitchen offended him.

Before he introduced himself, Ronda knew that this had to be Hunter, the Head Chef. Remaining polite and professional, she held out her hand and said, "Ronda Rousey. I'm here to inspect the hotel. You're Hunter, right?"

"That's right." Albeit it reluctantly, he accepted the handshake and introduced the other chef, who walked slowly over to them. "This is my sous chef, Kane."

"Good to meet you," Ronda said, holding out her hand again.

Kane accepted the handshake without saying anything, nearly crushing her small hand in the process.

"Fucking hell," Ronda muttered to herself, shaking her hand to try and relieve the pain. "You cooked my New York Strip, Kane, yes?"

"Yes. Did you enjoy it?"

Ronda shot a quizzical glance at the nearby camera, wondering if the question was a serious one. "I asked for medium rare, so what do you think? Did you serve me a medium rare steak?"

"Might have been done a bit more than medium rare," Kane shrugged.

"A bit more?" Ronda asked incredulously. "It was a shriveled up black mess. It looked like you'd set it on fire and left it for half an hour. I've never seen a piece of meat over cooked anything like as badly as that." Her attention shifted to Hunter. "You're the Head Chef, how did you let that steak go out like that? I'd have thrown it back at him and made him start over."

Hunter just shrugged. "I didn't see it. I was busy. I can't cook and supervise what everyone else is doing."

"You were busy?" Ronda made a point of looking around the kitchen. "There's nothing going on! It's lunch time and there's not a single meal being cooked. And unless I'm very much mistaken, I think you microwaved the lasagna that you served me?"

Being spoken to like that was obviously not something that Hunter was used to. "What the hell do you want me to do with a frozen lasagna?" he demanded, voice raised in the first sign of anger.

It only made Ronda bark back at him even more harshly. "I don't want you to serve a frozen lasagna! You're a chef, supposedly! Why don't you make your food fresh?"

"That's what I keep saying," Bayley muttered quietly.

Like a bull seeing a red rag, Hunter turned on Bayley and roared at her, "No one asked for your opinion! You've already been told to shut your mouth!"

Rather than cowering away, Bayley found some courage from somewhere and raised her voice right back at him. "All I ever get told is shut up, get out, do the cleaning, wash the dishes! No one ever listens to me! I have some good ideas that we could use to make this restaurant a success, but no one cares! You just want to be lazy and serve the same old crap day after day until this place closes down and we're all out of a job! I'm sick and tired of being the only one who gives a damn about this place!" Her voice had broken as she shrieked the last sentence at him and her eyes had filled with tears.

Hunter looked taken aback by the outburst, especially in front of Ronda and the TV cameras, and seemed to have no idea how to reply to it or even where to put himself. Ronda walked over to Bayley and put a comforting arm around her. "That's the most sense I've heard in this place all day." Glaring at Hunter, she demanded, "Who the fuck do you think you are, talking to her like that? Especially when she's frustrated that you don't listen to her when she's trying to put over ideas."

At that moment Daniel and Stephanie walked in. "What's going on?" Daniel asked nervously, wringing his hands together. "We heard shouting."

A small man who was almost buried under his own hair certainly wasn't how Ronda had pictured Daniel. The guy looked like a nervous wreck, aside from the fact that he needed to smarten himself up if he wanted to look fit for the part of a hotel owner. Wearing a flannel shirt and well worn jeans wasn't what she considered appropriate, even for a three star hotel like Brianna's.

"You must be Daniel?" He nodded, not that Ronda waited for the acknowledgement. "What's going on is I'm trying to figure out how you've let your kitchen staff get so out of control. Actually, your entire staff is out of control. Your receptionist is the least professional I've ever seen, your housekeeping is terrible beyond belief," pointing over at Stephanie, who was standing in the doorway, she added, "Your Head Waitress has an attitude problem with both customers and staff, your sous chef is a fucking clown, and your Head Chef is an arrogant prick who can't cook! Honestly, I'm already having to try hard to stop myself from leaving."

Everyone in the room seemed a little taken aback by that outburst. "I can cook," Hunter said sullenly after a moment.

"But you are an arrogant prick," Ronda said, pleased to see that it drew a grin from Bayley, although she tried to hide it. In Ronda's estimation, if there was one hope for Brianna's so far, it was Bayley. "The way you just spoke to Bayley was way out of line, and I don't give a damn if you are the Head Chef. Is it true what you said, Bayley, that you are always spoken to and ordered around like that?"

"Yes," Bayley admitted reluctantly, wondering what kind of consequences she would face from Hunter and Stephanie at a later date.

Ronda turned back to Daniel and shook her head. "You allow bullying from your staff?"

"I... uh..." Daniel stammered. "I've told them to... uh..."

Ronda knew that she had a big job on her hands to turn either Daniel or Brie into a real hotel manager, or Brianna's was done for. All of the problems that she'd found so far could be traced back to weak management. The only thing for it was to show them how it was done. "Stephanie, could you please go find Brie and ask her to join us."

The request had been made so politely that Stephanie couldn't object, much as she wanted to, especially when Ronda had just called her out for being bitchy to people. With no other choice, she headed off to find Brie without saying anything.

"That sounds great," Daniel said, clearly thinking quite the opposite. Brianna's had never been close to fully booked for a dinner service before. What could possibly go wrong?

While they waited for Brie and Stephanie to return, Ronda walked over to Bayley's cheesecake and looked it over. "This looks good," she decided, nodding appreciatively. "Bayley, get me a fork. I'd like to try it."

"Sure," Bayley replied excitedly and hurried across the kitchen to get a freshly washed spoon.

"Thank you," Ronda said when Bayley handed the fork to her. She used it to take a sizable chunk out of the cheesecake, which she then ate slowly, savoring the taste of the dessert. Hunter seemed as interested in the verdict as Bayley, whereas Kane just stood there looking dumbstruck. Not all of his dogs are barking, Ronda thought. "Bayley, that is fantastic," she announced. "One of the best cheesecakes I've had for some time, and I do like me some cheesecake."

Bayley looked like she wanted to jump around the room in excitement at getting praise for her work for once, but she restricted herself to a broad smile. For his part, Hunter looked like he had just been forced to drink a cup of piss. Having his own cooking criticized was bad enough, but then to have someone who he viewed as nothing more than a waitress and a pot washer praised for her efforts was too much to take. "This is stupid," he complained angrily. "You come into my kitchen and start throwing insults around like you know what you're talking about. I am an award winning chef, Rousey. Do you know what that means? It means I can cook better than you, better than Kane and certainly better than Bayley."

"Okay, prove it," Ronda replied simply. "Hunter, Kane, Bayley, I want all three of you to cook me an omelette. We'll see who can cook and who can't."

"Fine," Hunter growled aggressively and stormed over the walk-in refrigerator to get some ingredients. Bayley followed close behind, with Kane wandering after them at a much slower pace.

At that moment, Stephanie reappeared with Brie by her side. "You wanted me, Ronda?" the hotel's beleaguered owner asked.

"Yes, Brie, I did," Ronda said, turning to the new arrival. "It's apparent to me already that the biggest problem with your business is that neither you or Daniel are managing effectively. You both seem like nice people to me, and don't get me wrong, that's a great quality to have in the hotel business, but you need to be a lot firmer with your staff. You have no discipline in this place, and you employ people who simply aren't cut out for the jobs they're doing. Either that or they simply don't give a fuck about you or your business. Changes need to be made, and we're going to start right here and now." Daniel and Brie shared a nervous glance, but neither of them were prepared to interrupt. "If what I was served is anything to go by, the food you're serving here is a disgrace," Ronda continued. "No effort is being put into it and there is no quality control whatsoever. It's pathetic."

"Now wait a minute," Stephanie cut in indignantly.

"No, you wait a minute," Ronda barked back at her, walking over and almost getting in her face. "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Daniel and Brie. Contrary to what you seem to think, they run this fucking place, not you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Don't speak to me like that!" Stephanie screamed back at her, totally losing her cool.

Daniel and Brie looked like they wanted to flee rather than get involved in the confrontation, further strengthening Ronda's belief that they needed some serious lessons in management. The first lesson was how to deal with an employee with an attitude problem.

"Getting pissed off, are you?" Ronda screamed back at Stephanie, then her voice raised even louder and she leaned in so close to Stephanie's face that their noses almost touched. "Not as pissed off as I am! Your attitude to other people and to your work is a fucking disgrace! Get out!" The hotel inspector pointed towards the open doorway.

"You can't tell me to get out!" Stephanie thundered back at her, not showing any intimidation. "You don't run this hotel, they do." She pointed a finger in the direction of Daniel and Brie.

"That's right," Ronda said, now at a more controlled volume as she took a step back. "Daniel, Brie, you're the owners. You should be dealing with your staff, not standing there and watching me do it. Do you want this place to succeed or not?"

The two owners of Brianna's looked at each other again. Ronda thought for a moment that they were still not going to do anything, but then Brie found some courage from somewhere and rounded on Stephanie. "She's right, damn it. You act like you own this place, but you don't. We do, and you need to show some respect for us and for our hotel. Get out, and go and think about your actions." It was hardly the explosion of the century, in fact Brie's voice had cracked when she had mentioned the lack of respect that Stephanie had for the hotel.

"You're telling me to get out?" Stephanie demanded incredulously.

"Yes," Brie said as firmly as she could manage.

"I've heard enough of this," Hunter said, walking around the hot plate to get involved in the confrontation himself. "Don't talk to my wife like that, damn it."

This seemed to finally ignite something inside Daniel. "No, _you_ don't speak to _my_ wife like that," he told Hunter. "Go back round there and cook. Stephanie, get out and go sort your attitude out."

Srephanie turned and stormed out, muttering something about bullshit. Seeing no other real choice, especially with Bayley and Kane both cooking their omelettes. He couldn't lose face in this impromptu battle of the chefs, least of all with Bayley involved. "Fine," he huffed, and went back to work.

Ronda gave Brie's shoulder a reassuring squeeze and nodded some newfpund respect to Daniel. All was not lost.

* * *

"Well, I think the results are quite obvious here," Ronda said. Three omelettes sat on the hot plate in front of her. Daniel, Brie and the three chefs responsible for the food were all gathered around. Looking at the hotel's owners, Ronda said, "We're going to try all three of them."

"Do we have to?" Brie said wearily, looking at one plate in particular.

"Yes. This is the kind of food you could be serving to guests. We'll start with this one." Ronda slid one of the plates away from the others. The omelette in question was very well presented and looked incredibly appetising.

Ronda, Daniel and Brie picked up the cutlery that had been lying nearby and each tasted a mouthful of the omelette. "That's really, really nice," Daniel opined after swallowing.

"Mmmm, delicious," Brie agreed.

"You can't cook an omelette much better than that," Ronda said, nodding her appreciation. Looking at the three chefs, she asked, "Whose is this one?"

"That's mine," Bayley replied, timidly raising her hand.

"Excellent, Bayley," Ronda smiled. "Okay, next." She slid picked up another plate and set it next to Bayley's.

"Looks nice," Daniel said while they each took a small portion to taste.

"That was really nice too," Brie said a moment later. "I'd pay money to eat that."

"Me too," Daniel said.

"That's mine," Hunter announced, desperately trying to get the limelight back on himself.

"What this proves," Ronda said, "Is that you can cook when you put the effort in. The problem is that you've been being lazy, taking advantage of these guys. That's not on. You are paid to produce your best for every order, yes?"

"Yes," Hunter agreed, rather reluctantly.

"We'll talk later," Ronda told him, then moved on to the final omelette. "Kane, your omelette. Or should I say, you're pile of incinerated shit. I mean, what the hell happened here?"

"I cooked it," Kane mumbled defensively.

"I'm not eating that," Brie said, regarding the charred mess in front of her with distaste.

"Kane, that's awful," Daniel added.

To emphasise their comments, Ronda picked up the plate and dropped it in the trash. "Kane, you can't cook. That much is obvious. Daniel, Brie, you have this guy working on your line while Bayley is out there waiting tables. I mean, are we on the right planet here?"

Taking in a deep breath for courage, Daniel said, "No, you're right. Kane, your cooking is terrible. I'm afraid we're going to have to let you go."

Shaking his head with resignation, Kane shuffled towards the kitchen's back door to go fetch his belongings. As he went, he muttered, "Stupid. I can get a job as a chef anywhere I like."

"Maybe at a crematorium," Ronda conceded with a grin. Everyone remaining in the kitchen laughed, apart from Hunter who still looked annoyed by the whole process.

"That was my sous chef," he complained. "Now what am I supposed to do?"

"Your sous chef is standing next to you," Brie said, smiling at Bayley. "Ronda is right, Bayley, you are a very talented chef. We'd like you to work in the kitchen from now on."

"Thank you," Bayley replied humbly. "I'd love to work as a chef, but..." she looked nervously at Hunter. The implication was clear: she was afraid that she might face a life of misery thanks to the Head Chef and his wife.

"And Hunter will make sure that you are treated with respect and not bullied," Ronda assured her, before looking pointedly at Hunter and demanding, "Won't you?"

With all eyes on him, Hunter was again left with no choice. "Yes," he agreed.

Ronda knew that there was a lot of reluctance on his part, and there would be more on Stephanie's, but they had taken some considerable steps in the right direction. "Good," she said, with a satisfied clap of her hands. "Because the pressure will be on tonight. Our researchers have got Brianna's restaurant fully booked for dinner tonight. The pressure is going to be on, and I'm going to be watching to see how you go."


	6. Chapter 6

"Right, guys," Ronda said as she lead Daniel and Brie out of the kitchen. "The next thing I want you to do is get all of your housekeeping staff down here. We need to have a little chat about acceptable standards of cleanliness and room presentation."

"Okay," Daniel agreed, seeming like he was warming to the idea of taking charge a little more now. "I'll head upstairs and fetch the girls who are cleaning right now. Brie, you can go get Nikki."

"Nikki also works on housekeeping?" Ronda asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Yes," Brie said. "Nikki helps out with housekeeping first thing in the morning, then works the reception desk during the day. Believe it or not, she puts the hours in."

Ronda nodded her acknowledgement as they walked out of the restaurant. While the hotel owners headed off to fetch their employees, she had a few moments to give a piece to the camera that was following her around as usual. "This should be interesting," she began. "What Brie says about Nikki putting the hours in is fair enough, but putting hours in and actually making an effort with your work are two completely different things. I'm having a hard time right now picturing Nikki down on her hands and knees scrubbing a bathtub. Maybe that explains the state of some of the rooms? We're going to find out soon enough, when I meet the rest of the housekeeping staff. I'm genuinely not sure how people who are employed to do jobs like that could possibly prepare a room as badly as what I saw upstairs earlier. One thing's for sure; if they worked in one of my hotels and prepared a room like that, it would be the last thing they did before they lost their job. If Daniel and Brie haven't ever shown them what's required, I'll have to do it myself. Cleanliness and presentation are fundamental in any hotel."

A few minutes later, Brie had returned with Nikki and Daniel had returned with two other women, both blondes, one tall, one exceptionally short. Daniel handled the introductions, starting with the taller woman. "Ronda, this is Charlotte, and this is Alexa. Obviously you've already met Nikki. These three ladies, plus one who has her day off today, are our housekeeping team."

"Okay guys," Ronda said, getting right down to business. "I checked into my room earlier, and to be polite about it, I wasn't impressed with what I found with regard to the housekeeping."

"What room number was it?" Alexa asked, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was interrupting.

"Two twelve," Ronda answered.

"I know I didn't do that room this morning," Charlotte said defiantly, maybe a little too defiantly for it to ring true.

"But I thought..." Alexa began, until Charlotte clamped a hand over her mouth.

"I don't think it matters who did what, do you?" Charlotte said menacingly, glaring down at the much smaller woman.

Ronda flashed a questioning glance at the camera for a second, then said, "Can you let her go, please? There's no call for that kind of aggressive attitude."

"Sorry," Charlotte muttered, removing her hand from Alexa's mouth but still glaring at her fiercely. "I don't like people who try and drop me in the shit."

"Typical Charlotte," Nikki said airily as she pretended to study her nail paint on one hand.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Charlotte demanded, taking a threatening step towards Nikki.

"It means you're always trying to bully people," Brie said, with newfound authority. "We already sent Stephanie home for having that kind of attitude to Bayley. Unless you want the same thing to happen to you, calm yourself down."

Ronda nodded in agreement as Brie spoke, then looked at Charlotte. "Did you prepare my room today, Charlotte?"

"Actually, I did," Nikki admitted sullenly. "What are you going to do, yell at me again?"

"No," Ronda said, taking the question in her stride. "What we're going to is, go up to my room and see what you did wrong, because the state of my room is appalling. Judging by the reviews I've seen for Brianna's online, the rest of them won't be much better. Come on, all of you, let's go."

Ronda lead the group towards the elevator, and the stairs which were right next to it. "We'd better take the stairs," she decided. "I think that elevator might kill us all."

At the back of the group, Charlotte complained, "The only reason my rooms are ever done badly is because I have to do half of Nikki's share."

"That's not true," Nikki protested as they started climbing the stairs.

"Yes it is!" Charlotte insisted. "You stand there playing with your phone and worrying about how you look for longer than it takes me or Alexa to clean a room."

"That is true, honestly," Alexa said.

"No it's not!" Nikki said melodramatically.

"Then prove it," Charlotte snapped. "Why don't we all clean a room at once and see who does the best?"

"It's not a competition," Nikki complained.

"Enough!" Ronda said as they walked out of the stairwell onto the second floor, cringing at the barrage of childishness coming at her from all angles. "Charlotte, that's an excellent idea you just had. First, we're going to look around my room so I can point out the mistakes that have been made, then you're each going to clean a room from scratch to the best of your abilities. To give you fair warning; we've just done a similar test downstairs in the kitchen and Daniel ended up firing Kane for his inability to cook. If there are staff here who aren't any good enough at their jobs, they will be shown the door."

"That's right," Daniel said. "This whole process is about saving our business and turning it around. People are going to have to get on-board with that idea and do their jobs properly, or leave."

"Now we're getting somewhere," Ronda said. The group had just arrived at her room, and she swiped her key card in the lock. "Now, I'm going to show you several things in this room, any one of which would get a member of the housekeeping team in any of my hotels fired on the spot. Daniel, Brie, I expect you to hold up the new standards I'm going to set after I'm gone, so you can come in and pay attention, too."

Ronda lead everyone into the room and headed straight for the bed, which had been left with the covers pulled back. "Now, who wants to tell me what that is?" she asked, pointing at the semen stain on the sheet.

"Oh God," Daniel groaned. "Nikki, you put that on a guest's bed? What were you thinking?"

"I obviously didn't see it, did I?" Nikki replied defensively.

"Not good enough," Ronda told her sternly. "Now, the bathroom. You really did a bad job in here, too." She stopped by her case on the way to the bathroom and put her rubber gloves back on, less theatrically this time than she had during her room inspection. "Nikki, I'm going to need these to show you where you lacked attention to detail."

It was obvious to everyone that Nikki wasn't enjoying being called out on her poor work in front of her colleagues and a TV camera, but she wasn't quite brave enough to complain about it as she followed Ronda into the bathroom.

"What I noticed when I made my room inspection was this," Ronda said, crouching down next to the toilet. She ran a gloved finger under the bowl's rim and then showed it to Nikki so that she could see the dark stain that was now present on it. "I wouldn't exactly call that clean."

"You're not telling me guests are going to do that," Nikki said incredulously. "The bowl is clean. The seat is clean. Who's going to stick their fingers in there like that?"

Rolling her eyes, Ronda said, "The toilet is not clean, end of story. And neither is the bathtub." She got up and walked over to the tub, then pointed down at the matted hair she had dropped there earlier after pulling it out of the drain. "I pulled that out of the drain. And that all can't be blamed on Nikki, either. That drain hadn't been cleaned out for a very long time. Neither had this shower curtain, which should be changed between guests every single time, by the way."

"Oh, come on," Daniel groaned when Ronda pulled the curtain open to reveal the mold. "Ladies, that's disgusting. Would you stay in a hotel room in this condition?"

"No way," Alexa mumbled, ashamed.

"Charlotte?" Daniel asked.

"No, I wouldn't," she admitted.

Brie looked at her sister with an anguished look on her face. "Nikki, how could you leave a room like this? This is my business. If Brianna's fails, Daniel and I will be out on the streets. Don't you get that?"

"I'm sorry, Brie," Nikki said, looking down at her feet in shame. "I know you're right. I need to do better than this. We all do. I don't want you to go out of business."

"And better is what you're going to do," Ronda assured all three of them. "How many rooms are there left to clean right now? Other than the fact they all probably need doing again anyway, I mean."

"There are four left to do, all on the third floor," Alexa said.

Ronda looked at the camera. "Then that's where we're going next."

* * *

Three identically equipped cleaning carts stood in the hallway, outside of three rooms which had their doors propped open. Nikki, Charlotte and Alexa stood by their respective carts, ready to take instruction from Ronda. Daniel and Brie stood next to the hotel inspector, ready to see what their employees could really do.

"I want you to remember," Ronda began, addressing all three members of the housekeeping team, "that this is not a race. We're not looking for the first one to finish cleaning. Although time is important of course, what we're looking for most of all is all three rooms to be finished to an immaculate standard. When it comes to cleanliness, there is no distinction between this three star hotel and the most expensive five star hotels in the world. If your cleaning wouldn't be acceptable in a five star room, it's not acceptable here. Understood?"

"Yes," all three housekeepers chorused.

"Good," Ronda said. "You can begin. We'll be filming you as you work, and inspecting the rooms when you're done."

Alexa and Charlotte both began by collecting supplies from their carts so they could start cleaning. Meanwhile, Nikki started by carefully putting on a pair of yellow rubber gloves, followed by a second pair. Then she picked up a dust mask and put that on as well. Alexa and Charlotte were two minutes in to cleaning their rooms by this point, and Nikki hadn't even entered hers.

"What are you doing?" Ronda asked, unable to totally hide her amusement at the ridiculous sight.

"Getting ready to scrub the toilet like you told me to," Nikki said irritably. "There's no way other people's shit is going anywhere near my skin, and I don't want to smell it, either. I wish we had better masks than these things. It's hard not to end up hurling all over the floor."

Although she had to smile, Ronda looked at Daniel and Brie and shook her head as Nikki finally entered the room and got to work. "I really don't think your sister is in the right job in housekeeping, Brie."

"I think you might be right," Brie admitted reluctantly. "Maybe I should cut her hours back a little and just have her work reception. I do have another housekeeper, who's on her day off today. Thea's a hard worker. I doubt you'd find a problem with her rooms. I can give her more shifts."

"Let's give her a chance before we decide anything," Daniel said, wanting to be fair to Nikki.

Just over twenty minutes later, both Charlotte and Alexa were finished with their rooms. Nikki, on the other hand, was barely halfway through hers, having just finished in the bathroom.

"Nowhere near quick enough," Ronda opined quietly to the hotel's owners so that Charlotte and Alexa couldn't hear. "Yes, there are standards to meet, but time is also an important consideration, like I said before. Guys, you're going to have to make a decision on Nikki."

"I'll handle it," Brie promised. Then, louder, she asked, "Should we check out the other two rooms?"

"Yeah," Ronda said. "Charlotte, why don't we start with you?" She lead Daniel and Brie to the room Charlotte had worked on, picking up a spare pair of gloves on the way past the cart and handing them to Brie. "Here. I've had my hands in a toilet enough times for one day. You can do the detailed inspections."

Brie pulled the gloves on and made her way into the bathroom, followed by the camerawoman, who wanted to document the results of Charlotte's efforts. Ronda, Daniel and Charlotte hovered near the doorway for the verdict.

"On first glance, this looks good," the hotel inspector said, looking around the room. The sink, bathtub and faucets were all gleaming, such was the quality of the finish Charlotte had produced.

Brie crouched down and performed the finger test under the rim of the toilet down. Her gloved finger came away without a mark on it. "Looks good," she announced, showing the result to camera.

"Check the tub," Ronda ordered. "I saw you change the shower curtain, Charlotte, but let's see if you did a good job with the faucets and the drain."

Climbing into the tub, Brie smiled when she found that there was no hair in the drain. Then she rubbed a finger around the end of the faucet. It came away slightly dirty, to Charlotte's obvious disappointment.

"A big improvement, but not perfect," Ronda adjudicated. "Now let's go check out the rest of the room."

They walked around the room, inspecting the finishing touches Charlotte had made. Even the top of the wardrobe had been cleaned. Ronda made a couple of suggestions for minor improvements, but she proclaimed herself happy overall. They moved on to the room Alexa had cleaned, again finding only a few minor errors.

"You know what this test has told me?" Ronda said to Daniel and Brie when they walked back into the hallway, noticing that Nikki was still working in her room.

"Yes," Daniel said. "Charlotte and Alexa can do the housekeeping well when they try, whereas Nikki isn't cut out for it at all." He turned to the two women who's rooms had already been inspected. "Ladies, like Ronda said, these are the standards you need to deliver in every room, every time. We're never going to attract repeat business if we don't put our guests in clean rooms. And without repeat business, we're never going to be profitable."

"We understand," Charlotte said, surprisingly shelving her argumentative attitude.

"I guess I'll have to speak to Nikki," Brie said, downcast about telling her sister her services were no longer required in housekeeping. "I'll give Thea some more shifts and I'll start looking for someone else to hire. It will mean an extra wage to pay, but it needs to be done. We've got to spend money to turn things around, right, Ronda?"

"That's right," the hotel inspector said. "We're also going to need to talk about changing the decoration in reception and the restaurant, but we've got a budget on the show to take care of that for you. You're also going to need to replace the sign out there on the road. The one you have is totally inadequate."

"We're happy to go along with whatever changes you suggest," Daniel assured her, looking at his wife for confirmation. Brie nodded her agreement, smiling appreciatively at Ronda.

"Good," Ronda said, with an air of finality. She turned to face the camera. "It appears we've found a relatively simple and pain-free solution to the housekeeping problems here at Brianna's. Somehow, I get the idea that getting the kitchen and restaurant running smoothly is going to be a much more difficult task. I guess we'll see tonight at dinner service."


	7. Chapter 7

"We'll soon be opening the doors to begin dinner service," Ronda said to the camera as she walked into the restaurant. To her surprise, approximately two thirds of the tables had already been set, ready for customers to arrive.

"Look at this," she said as the camerawoman panned a shot around the large room. "Something has actually been organised efficiently at Brianna's. Who would have thought that was possible?"

Two young waitresses were working on setting the tables, one with blonde hair and another whose hair was coloured bright orange.

"There's no danger of missing her, is there?" Ronda grinned at the camera when it was focused back on her. She walked over to the two waitresses, who stopped what they were doing when they realised she was going to talk to them.

"Hi. You're the hotel inspector?" Orange hair asked in an Irish accent.

"That's right," Ronda nodded. "My name's Ronda. And you are?"

"Becky," the Irish woman replied pleasantly.

"I'm Emma, nice to meet you," the blonde said in an Australian accent.

"Nice to meet you both. Where's Stephanie?" Ronda asked. She had expected the Head Waitress to be there, supervising her team.

"In the kitchen," Emma said, pointing towards the closed door in case Ronda was unsure where the kitchen was.

"Not out here, helping you?" Ronda asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Helping us?" Becky asked, then both waitresses looked at each other and laughed, as if the suggestion was ridiculous.

"I get the picture," Ronda said, marching off towards the kitchen with the camerawoman trailing along behind her.

Pushing the kitchen door open, Ronda found Stephanie sitting on one of the work surfaces, talking to her husband while he worked on some of the food preparation tasks that were essential before service could commence. Bayley was also doing prep work at the other end of the kitchen. All three of them turned to see who had entered the kitchen when they heard the door open.

"When you're ready, Stephanie," Ronda said sharply. "There are tables that need setting out here."

"The tables are being set already," Stephanie said dismissively.

"And they'll be set a lot faster when you're helping, won't they?" Ronda asked, an edge to her voice. "Why are there only two waitresses, anyway? The place is going to be full tonight."

"There's not two waitresses, there's three including me," Stephanie snarked. "And there would have been four if some genius hadn't talked Daniel and Brie into firing Kane and putting Bayley in the kitchen. Now, I wonder who that might have been?"

Ronda walked over and stood right in front of Stephanie, an irritated expression on her face. "That's a real bad attitude problem you've got there, Stephanie, you know that? Maybe you should follow Kane out of the door?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes and sighed as she got down from the work surface. "Fine, I'll go and help them," she said, making it sound like the biggest sacrifice in the history of mankind.

"You need to get off my wife's back," Hunter said grumpily, stopping his work to glare at Ronda.

"And you need to worry about doing your own job," Ronda fired back. "If the fucking disaster at lunch time is anything to go by, you're not exactly that great at it."

"I'm an award-winning chef," Hunter reminded her.

"So I've heard, about ten thousand times already," Ronda said dryly. "We'll see about that at the end of the night." With that, she turned and walked out of the kitchen, finding Stephanie helping the two younger waitresses to set the tables, albeit with a sulky expression on her face.

"Hey, Rousey," Stephanie called out when she noticed her. "Since you cost me a waitress, how about you get your own hands dirty for once instead of bossing other people around?"

Ronda glanced at the camera with a quizzical expression on her face. "Did I just hear that right?" she asked the audience. "I'm the one not getting my hands dirty and bossing people around? Coming from Stephanie? That's amazing," she chuckled. Then she turned to Stephanie and said, "If you want another waitress, I'll get you one right now."

Without waiting for a response, Ronda walked across the restaurant towards the entrance, which lead through to the reception area. Standing in the doorway, she yelled at the top of her voice, "Brie!"

It took almost a minute for the owner to come jogging around the corner. "Ronda? What is it?" she asked breathlessly.

"What have you been doing?" Ronda asked, noting the scruffy way Brie was dressed.

"Supervising the housekeeping team," Brie said, more defensively than was necessary.

"What about Daniel?" Ronda asked.

"I think he's working on paperwork in the office."

"Not anymore," Ronda said firmly. "Go and tell him to get changed. Tonight, he's a waiter."

"A waiter?" Brie asked, surprised by the idea.

"Yes," Ronda said patiently. "Let me remind you, you're expecting the restaurant to be full tonight. You've only brought two waitresses in, plus Stephanie, who's about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. We're going to need another pair of hands. Now, go tell Daniel to chance, and tell him to hurry up about it. Honestly, you should be in here doing these organisational tasks for yourself, Brie. You're the owner here, not me. I'm running the fucking place for you."

"I was upstairs, working," Brie protested. "I can't be everywhere."

"True," Ronda admitted. "But your husband is hiding away in the office, again. Is he going to grow a pair and start pulling his weight around here or not?"

"I'll go and get him now," Brie said, blushing at the way her husband was being spoken about.

* * *

"Table eight want to know where their appetisers are," Becky said, rushing into the kitchen.

"I'm still waiting on a lasagna for twelve," Emma said, standing next to the hot plate.

Daniel came through the door carrying a plate with a steak on it. "Table two are saying this isn't cooked medium-well," he reported.

"For fuck's sake!" Hunter screamed in frustration as the situation in the kitchen spiraled even further out of control.

Bayley stood out of the way, working on cooking a steak, seemingly trying to make herself look invisible. The chaos and Hunter's anger were clearly too much for the timid young woman to cope with.

The camera focused on Ronda, who was standing in the corner of the room. She shook her head in disbelief. "What a fucking mess," she said for the benefit of the audience as she watched Hunter failing to address any of the complaints that were coming his way, or to supervise Bayley, who was supposed to be his sous chef.

Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Ronda walked over to stand beside Hunter. The steak that Daniel had returned was the first thing she decided to address. "Daniel, what's supposed to be wrong with this? It looks good to me."

"They said it's not medium-well," Daniel said.

Ronda picked up a knife and fork and cut off a small piece of the meat. Holding it up to Hunter on the fork, she asked, "What does that look like to you?"

"Medium-well," Hunter said defensively, seeing that there was no pink in the meat.

"That's because it is medium-well," Ronda said. She picked the plate up and held it out to Daniel, ordering, "Stop wasting our fucking time. You can see that's medium-well as well as I can. What's wrong with you?"

"But they said..." Daniel tried to protest.

"Then tell them to fuck off!" Ronda yelled, cutting him off. "Valid complaints we'll deal with, not people who want to be fucking stupid. Take that back out there."

Daniel took the plate and hurried out of the kitchen as Ronda turned back to Hunter. "Come on!" she shouted at him. "This is your kitchen, man! Why am I running it for you? What's next?"

"I need a lasagna," Emma said again, her nerves clearly on edge.

"Uh, what table?" Hunter asked, floundering around with the stack of tickets he had left on the work surface.

"Twelve," Emma said impatiently.

"We already did that," Bayley said nervously. "We did the order for twelve ten minutes ago."

"Then where the fuck is it?" Ronda yelled, looking up to the heavens for divine intervention.

"I can't find the ticket for twelve," Hunter said, quickly losing his own temper. "It must have gone out to the wrong table."

"Get your ass in gear!" Ronda roared at him. "Arrange the damn tickets properly, don't just toss them on the side! How can you send food to the wrong damn table?"

"Stop fucking shouting at me, bitch!" Hunter screamed, rounding on her. "Get out of my kitchen!"

"I'll shout at you until you start running it properly!" Ronda yelled, going nose to nose with him. "Supervise your sous chef, and get the right orders out to the right tables! It's not exactly fucking rocket science!"

"Stop shouting," Bayley begged them, on the verge of tears. "This steak is done. What am I supposed to do next?"

Ronda didn't back away from Hunter, but she raised her eyebrows, challenging him to step up and do his job properly at last.

"We, uh, need a lasagna for table twelve," he said, backing off after a tense moment of silence and turning to Bayley. "As quick as you can, please."

"Okay," Bayley said, hurrying over to the refrigerator to fetch ingredients.

Ronda took a deep breath, which allowed her to speak to Hunter more calmly as she picked up the ticket for table eight. "Appetisers, Hunter. Let's go. We can turn this around. Tell me what you want me to do and I'll help you."

"Right," Hunter said, composing himself. He took the ticket from her and read over it. "I need a garlic flatbread. While you're doing that, I'll do these two orders of cheesy potato skins."

"You got it," Ronda said, getting down to business.

* * *

Standing out in the parking lot, Ronda was ready to give a piece to camera. She looked a little red in the face due to the amount of shouting she had found herself having to do to get the staff to perform. It appeared that the cool night air was doing her some good.

"I've just spent half an hour watching what's going on in the dining area of the restaurant," she began. "You really couldn't make up some of the things that happen in this place. I've seen Stephanie arguing with customers and staff, and I've seen Daniel running around like a headless chicken, looking like he's about to cry."

"But, on the positive side," she went on in a slightly brighter tone, "I've been impressed with the way Hunter has run the kitchen, after we had a shouting match about it. I've also been quite impressed with how the rest of the wait staff have handled a service that is much busier than they're used to.

"What I've taken away from all of this is that what Brianna's needs the most is a restructuring of its staff. We already took Nikki off the housekeeping team earlier today; now I have other changes to suggest. I'm going to have to get everyone together for a serious talk tonight, after we close the restaurant."

She paused for a moment, then grimaced at that camera. "Something tells me there are going to be a few people who won't like my suggestions at all."


	8. Chapter 8

When Ronda walked back into the restaurant after giving her piece to the camera out in the parking lot, she found Hunter standing near the doorway, waiting for her.

"Ronda, have you got a minute?" the Head Chef asked.

"Sure," Ronda agreed, managing to hide her surprise as she looked around the room at the wait staff, including Daniel and Stephanie, who were in the process of cleaning the tables, although Stephanie didn't seem enthusiastic about it at all. Right now, the dining area was not the place to have a private chat. "Shall we go in the kitchen?" she suggested.

"Alright," Hunter said, turning and leading the way across the restaurant. Ronda and the camerawoman followed closely behind. Whatever was about to happen was going to be recorded for the show.

When they walked into the kitchen, Ronda saw Bayley hard at work cleaning the cooker. "Bayley, can you give us a minute, please?" she asked.

"Okay," Bayley agreed pleasantly, tossing her cloth onto the nearby work surface and heading for the door. It seemed like she was eager to make herself scarce.

"What can I do for you?" Ronda asked Hunter once the camerawoman had taken up her position to film the exchange.

Hunter shifted on his feet, looking awkward as he tried to decide how to put what he wanted to say. "I think it went well tonight, once we really got down to work," he ventured.

"After our shouting match, you mean?" Ronda asked with a grin.

"Well, yeah," Hunter said. "We started getting the orders out in good time, and we hardly had any food coming back. That's the way it should be."

"It is," Ronda said, encouraging him to go on, still wondering where this was going.

"Honestly, tonight, I actually enjoyed cooking for the first time in months," Hunter said. "I know you think I'm a lazy, good-for-nothing asshole, but I really am a very good chef. I won my award legit, and I'm very proud of it. I just, kind of lost my motivation for it."

"Hunter, yesterday you served me frozen food that you heated up in a microwave," Ronda pointed out. "That tells me you've lost you've lost your passion for what you're doing. I don't pretend to be a trained chef, but what I do know is, a chef without any passion is a waste of space."

"You're right," Hunter sighed. "I've been coasting along, not giving a fuck about this place or enjoying cooking. I can see that if we carry on this way, we're going to have to close down. I don't want that. Tonight, I realised just how sick I am of working the way I have been recently. That's why I asked you to come in here now. I want to say that I'm going to get back to working to the standard that I'm capable of. I'm going to start coming in to work early to do my prep, and I'm going to make sure that all of our meals are made fresh. There won't be anymore frozen, microwaved shit sent out of my kitchen."

"That's great news. Well done, Hunter," Ronda said genuinely. "If you want the truth, I think one of the biggest problems you have in this kitchen is your wife. She's so negative all the time, it makes the atmosphere in here toxic. I don't think I've ever experienced anything quite like it."

Hunter grimaced. "Steph hates being a waitress. I got her the job here after she was made redundant at her old job, but she's never liked it."

"What did she do at her old job?" Ronda asked.

"She was a PA for some lawyer. He had a heart attack and died."

"A PA?" Ronda wondered aloud. "So she would maybe be more at home working the reception desk, if that job became available?"

"Nikki works the reception desk," Hunter said, not answering the question.

"I know. I'm thinking of having Daniel and Brie reorganise their staff," Ronda revealed. "My question was, do you think Stephanie's attitude would improve if she worked the reception desk? Because right now, I'm seriously considering telling the owners to fire her, you know that? If she worked a shift in one of my hotels with that kind of attitude, her feet wouldn't hit the ground on her way out the door, you know that?"

"I get that," Hunter said. "Honestly, I think Steph would like that change a lot."

Ronda nodded, then said, "There's something else I'm going to need you to do, too."

"What's that?" Hunter asked.

"Cooking is only part of the job for a Head Chef. This is your kitchen, Hunter. You don't need me to tell you that. You're responsible for everything that goes on in here, as well as every order that goes out to a table." She pointed to the door. "That girl who just walked out the door? Bayley? You've got a really talented, hard working girl right there. She has just the right kind of attitude you should want in a trainee chef. She likes to put ideas of her own forward, and more importantly, she can cook. And you've been treating her like shit. Watching her last night, she was so scared of the reaction she might get if she screwed something up that she tried to hide away as much as possible. Do you know how wrong that is?"

"Yeah, you're right," Hunter mumbled, looking down to avoid eye contact in embarrassment.

"You're the Head Chef," Ronda reminded him again. "It's your job to nurture the talent that girl has. It's up to you to help her develop. You should let her try out some of the suggestions she has for the menu, and you should take pride in her if she manages to pull them off. If she doesn't? Then you need to help her to do better next time. Don't shit on the girl, help her."

"You're totally right," Hunter said, nodding to emphasise his agreement.

"If you really mean what you're saying right now, and I truly hope you do, how about we get Bayley back in here and you apologise to her face for how you've treated her," Ronda suggested.

"Okay," Hunter agreed, but he didn't sound particularly committed to the idea.

"Look," Ronda said, doing her best to keep her cool while also wanting to be assertive to get her point across. "Right now, you hold that girl's career in your hands. Tell me, what was it like in the kitchen where you trained to be a chef? Did your Head Chef take you under his wing and teach you? Or did he kick your ass all the time?"

"Both, actually," Hunter said, managing a smile.

Ronda returned the smile, the first truly positive moment of the day between them. "I understand what you mean," she said. "And I bet you love him for it now, am I right?"

"Yeah," Hunter said reflectively.

"That's what you need to do now for Bayley. She's not here to wash dishes and clean the fridge all the time. She's your understudy now. Are we agreed on that?"

"We are," Hunter confirmed. "I'm going to need another chef as well. Remember, we fired Kane today."

"You're right," Ronda acknowledged. "I'll speak to Daniel and Brie about it. Now, before I invite Bayley back in here, I have one more question for you."

"Shoot," Hunter invited.

"What is the one thing you think Brianna's needs the most to become successful right now?"

Hunter grunted a laugh. "You, that's what we need. Or at least someone who could manage the place like you could. You've done more as a manager in one day here than anyone else has since we opened."

With that confirmation, Ronda glanced at the camera and grimaced, raising her eyebrows. She then walked over and opened the kitchen door. "Bayley," she called out. "I need you to join us in here for a minute."

Bayley quickly walked into the kitchen, a nervous expression on her face as she looked back and forth between Hunter and Ronda. "Everything okay?" she asked timidly.

Ronda looked at Hunter and raised her eyebrows again, prompting him to take centre stage.

"Bayley, Ronda and I have just had a positive conversation," Hunter began.

"Okay," Bayley said, still just as nervous.

"One of the things we talked about was your promotion to full time chef," Hunter went on. "I have to apologise to you, Bayley. The way you've been spoken to and treated sometimes in my kitchen, by me and by other people, has been unacceptable. I'm sorry, and I'm going to make sure it stops. I've just told Ronda that I'm committed to start acting like a proper Head Chef, and part of that means helping to develop the talent that I know you have. I'm looking for you to step up and become the sous chef that I need."

Bayley looked down at her feet and gulped, trying and failing to hold back the tears.

"Say something to the man, Bayley," Ronda prompted her gently.

"Thank you, Hunter," Bayley said quietly, managing to look up at him. "All I've ever wanted is to be a chef, and I really want to do well for Brie and Daniel. I'll try my hardest to learn, if you'll teach me."

"Fresh start?" Hunter asked, extending his hand. "I'll teach you as best I can. You need to know that I will still kick your ass in here, but only when you actually deserve it for screwing up. For"

"A fresh start," Bayley agreed, accepting his handshake.

"Well done, both of you," Ronda said. "For the first time, the two of you have just given me real hope that this place is going to make it, you know that?"

"We still need another chef," Hunter reminded her.

"Uh, I actually have a friend who's a chef, and she's currently looking for work. Her name is Sasha," Bayley said quietly, clearly worried that she might be told to shut up.

"We can give her a trial shift," Hunter suggested, looking at Ronda.

"I'll speak to Daniel and Brie about it," Ronda said. "There are a few things I need to bring up with them now. I'll leave the two of you to get the kitchen cleaned."

With that, Ronda walked out of the kitchen. As she walked across the restaurant, she spoke for the benefit of the show's audience. "Fucking hell. We might actually be getting somewhere. Hunter has some balls after all, and I've seen tonight that he can actually cook. The kitchen might stand half a chance of being successful if he can follow through on everything he's just promised me. In Bayley, he has someone with a lot of potential."

She stopped walking when she reached the exit of the restaurant and looked at the camera with a stern expression on her face. "Now it's time for Daniel and I to have words." Looking across the room to where the owners was wiping a table down with a cloth, she called out, "Daniel! Come out here, will you?"

Daniel finished cleaning the table he was working on, then walked over to Ronda.

"It's time we had a serious chat," she told him as he approached. "We need to talk about what I think is the biggest problem this hotel has right now."

"Oh? What's that?" Daniel asked.

"You."


	9. Chapter 9

"It's my second day here at Brianna's," Ronda said to open the next segment of the show. She was standing in the yard behind the restaurant and kitchen, with Daniel beside her. The hotel's owner looked less than thrilled to be there. "I've brought Daniel out back for a bit of... let's call it management training. Daniel, you know why it's you that's out here."

"Yeah, you said I'm the biggest problem in my own hotel," Daniel said, his tone accusatory. "I don't think that's fair at all."

"I'm not here to be fair, at least not by your definition, which seems to be me kissing your ass," Ronda said bluntly. "You called me in to help you fix your hotel. We're in the shit for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and from I can see, the biggest problem around here is the management, or lack of it. When it's all said and done, you are supposed to be the manager, aren't you?"

"I am the manager," Daniel said defiantly.

"You could have fooled me so far," Ronda said, not holding back as usual. "That's the closest you've come to proving you've got some balls since I got here. It seems to me that whenever there's work to be done or we're in the shit, you're sitting in your office playing fucking solitaire on the computer."

"I'm not playing solitaire, I'm working out how we're going to pay the bills," Daniel said sullenly.

Ronda didn't let him off the hook. "I know how you're not going to pay the bills; by burying your head in the sand and refusing to confront and deal with the problems you have. Honestly, I think I've done more management of this hotel in the last twenty four hours than you have since you opened it."

"You've done more shouting, I'll give you that much," Daniel said. "I'm just not that kind of person, and neither is Brie. We don't want to have to scream at people to get them to work."

Looking at the camera for a second, Ronda sighed. She was clearly finding dealing with the owners of Brianna's to be hard work. "Let me ask you a question, Daniel," she said. "Do you think if I walk into one of my hotels, I have to start shouting, screaming and swearing at the staff? Or do you think the place runs like clockwork whether I'm there or not?"

"I think it runs like clockwork," Daniel admitted.

Ronda nodded. "Right. Because in my hotels, the staff are used to the standards that are expected of them. Here, you've set no standards. People just go around doing whatever the fuck they want, and they get paid for it regardless. That's on you and Brie, and the quicker you start accepting that, the quicker we can start running your hotel and restaurant like a business instead of a shit show."

"But I'm just not the kind of person who can shout like you," Daniel said weakly.

This time Ronda smiled. "That's why we're out here, just the two of us. By the time we go back inside, you'll know how to shout properly. What I want you do is imagine I'm one of your employees and you've just caught me fucking around when I should have been working, or I've delivered some food to the wrong table at dinner. Pick anything you like, just give me a roasting for my incompetence."

Embarrassed by the idea, Daniel laughed, but as he did so he noticed that Ronda wasn't finding anything amusing about it. She was serious about what she had told him to do. "You really want me to shout at you?" he asked nervously.

"Like I said, pretend I'm one of your staff who just fucked something up," Ronda said patiently. "Come on, give it to me."

"What were you thinking when you cleaned that room?" Daniel shouted, still sounding about as weak as ever. "The state you left it in is ridiculous!"

"No, Daniel," Ronda said, shaking her head. "That was pathetic. I'd struggle to even pay attention to that. It should be more like this." She roared in his face, "What the fuck do you think you're doing leaving a room like that? The place is a shit hole! Get back in there now and do it over, top to fucking bottom! Now!" she screamed at him, making him pull away from her. "You see the difference?" she asked, back in her normal tone.

"Just a bit," Daniel said, injecting a bit of humour of his own into the situation as he glanced at the camera.

"You don't have to swear as much as I do," Ronda explained. "That's just a personal habit I can't get out of. What you need to do is get the message across to your staff that you won't be fucked around. They are here to do a job, and if they're not going to do it, they can hit the fucking road, yes?"

"Yeah, I know you're right," Daniel said. "It's just getting myself in that mindset, you know?"

"Let's try again," Ronda suggested. "Pretend I'm Nikki, sitting there at your reception desk flashing my tits around the place and fucking around on my phone. I want to see the manager of Brianna's now."

"Alright," Daniel said after clearing his throat in preparation. "Nikki!" he yelled as sternly as he could manage. "How many times have I told you about turning that fucking phone off? If I see it again, I'm going to drop it in a bucket of water! And while we're at it, you can start coming in here dressed appropriately! We're a hotel, not a strip club!"

Ronda laughed, out of appreciation this time as she put an arm around Daniel's shoulders and turned him to face the camera. "Fan-fucking-tastic. Now I think we're getting somewhere. The next time you see someone doing something they shouldn't, or slacking off, that's the kind of treatment you give them, got it?"

"Got it," Daniel confirmed.

"Good. You'll be surprised how soon you find that you don't need to do it anymore. No one likes getting yelled at, so they either do their jobs properly, or they fuck off. Either way, you benefit. You don't need staff who aren't willing to bust their asses for you."

With that, Ronda started walking towards the door that lead into the kitchen. Daniel and the camerawoman followed close behind. "Right, come with me," Ronda was saying to Daniel. "I've got all of your staff in early this morning so that we can do some restructuring."

"Restructuring?" Daniel inquired.

"Yes," Ronda said as she lead the way through the empty kitchen. On the way through, she picked up a clipboard which she had left there earlier. It had a sheet of paper attached to it, on which was a list of names. She pulled a pen out of her pocket as she said, "I don't know where your head was at when you appointed people to roles in this place, but you made a piss poor job of it. I stayed up last night in my room and reassigned everyone that I think needs to be assigned new roles. If they don't want to change, then we're going to have to let them go."

"Right," Daniel said, quickly returning to sounding nervous. They walked out into the dining room to find all of Brianna's staff, even Brie herself, standing there waiting for them. There were a couple of people there who Ronda had not met as yet, and one face that was new to Daniel.

"Good morning," Ronda greeted the group. Only a few of them gave responses worthy of the description. "Let's try again, shall we?" she asked irritably. "Let's see some life out of you. I said good morning." This time the response was more enthusiastic all round.

"That's better," Daniel said, surprising Ronda by actually taking the initiative. "Let's act like we want to be here," he told them, not making it sound like a suggestion.

"Exactly," Ronda nodded. "Now, the reason we're all here today is to restructure the job roles here at Brianna's. One of the biggest problems I've noticed is the there are people working in positions that are not suited to their actual abilities. We're going to correct that today, according to a list that I drew up last night. I've talked it over with Daniel, and he has agreed that anyone who isn't happy with the job they're given is free to leave this morning and seek employment elsewhere. All clear so far?"

The verbal reactions were positive, but several people looked warily around at those near to them, wondering if they were the ones to be assigned to a new role, possibly one that they would not like.

Ronda gestured to a Hispanic looking woman with short bleached blonde hair who looked to be around forty. On Ronda's cue, she stepped forward. "Let me introduce Melina Perez. She's been a Head Waitress in one of my hotels for four years. She's going to be working here for a month at my expense while Daniel and Brie find themselves a new Head Waitress." The sour expression on Stephanie's face came as no surprise, since she had effectively just been told that she had lost her job.

"Before I get to the reassignments, there are a few people here I haven't met yet," Ronda went on. "As I'm sure you're aware by now, my name is Ronda Rousey. I'm here to try and turn our fortunes around and get Brianna's running at a profit. Everyone I've not met yet will remain in their current roles until I've had a chance to see them in action. If you're one of those people, I'd like you to step forward and introduce yourself and tell me what your job role is, please. I'll add your names to my list."

A blonde woman was first to step forward. "Hi, I'm Carmella. I'm a waitress." Ronda added the name to her list.

Next to step forward was a noticeably short woman with long dark hair. "I'm Thea. I work in housekeeping."

"Okay," Ronda said pleasantly, making a note of the name. "And lastly, you?" she asked of a black woman with striking purple hair.

"Sasha Banks. I've just been hired as a chef."

"Ah, Bayley's friend," Ronda recalled from a conversation the previous day as she wrote the name down on her list. "You hired her, Brie?"

"I did," the owner confirmed.

"Good. Quick, decisive action. I like that," Ronda said, coming close to being impressed for what felt like the first time since she had set foot in Brianna's. "Now, the restructuring I mentioned earlier. I think what I'll do is call out a job role and have the people I've assigned to it step forward. Since we've just found out who our new chef is, let's start there. There are no surprises here anyway. Hunter, Head Chef. Sous-chefs are Bayley and Sasha."

The three chefs stepped forward, Hunter looking smug about the fact that he was still Head Chef, not that it had been in doubt.

Ronda gestured over towards the kitchen door. "Stand over there out of the way, please. Next, waitresses. Melina, Head Waitress, as we've just discussed. Becky and Emma, I had no problem with your work yesterday, and Carmella, I'm yet to see you work." The four women stepped forward and Ronda gestured off to the side again. "Join the chefs, please."

"What about me?" Stephanie demanded impatiently. "I'm supposed to be Head Waitress here. This is crap."

Ronda gave her a withering look. "It's precisely that attitude that has made me reassign you," she said. "Well, that and laziness. I've been told that you previously worked as a PA to a lawyer or something, so I've assigned you to a job where your talents might be better utilised."

"Oh?" Stephanie asked, immediately sounding a little more upbeat.

"You're moving to the reception desk," Ronda announced. "Unless you've got a problem with that as well?" She made the question sound like a challenge.

"No, I think I might like that," Stephanie said thoughtfully. "It is kind of similar to jobs I've done in the past."

"Excellent," Ronda said. "Go and join everyone else who already has their assignments, please."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Nikki whined. "You already fired me from housekeeping; now Stephanie's taken my job on reception."

"Quite frankly, I don't have your name down on my list, Nikki," Ronda said, watching Brie close her eyes as she said it. "I know Brie isn't keen to fire you since you're her sister, so I'll let her decide what to do with you. Brie, are you going to let her go, or are you going to give her another chance somewhere?"

"Brie, you can't fire me," Nikki begged.

"I'm not going to fire you," Brie assured her, surprising no one. "We've seen that housekeeping isn't really your thing. How do you feel about trying waitressing?"

"I've got no patience for people who are liabilities," Melina said firmly. "This is your hotel, but for the next month, these are my waitresses. If you give her to me, she'd better work just as hard as the rest of us."

Brie could tell right away why Ronda had chosen Melina to be the one who came to help them out. The two women obviously had a similar no-nonsense way of working. Brie had to admit that was what the hotel needed to get back on track. She was glad when Nikki chose to answer on her own behalf.

"I won't be a liability," Nikki promised. "I know I've not tried my hardest in the past, and I feel bad about that. I think Ronda has given us all a kick up the ass since she showed up. I do want to work here, so I'll try my best as a waitress."

"That's all we're asking," Ronda said kindly, deciding to give her a break. "Go and stand with the rest of the waitresses."

Nikki did as instructed. To their credit, the other waitresses greeted her with smiles rather than sideways glances or angry glares.

"Housekeeping next," Ronda said. "For that I have Charlotte, Alexa and Thea."

The three women stepped forward and were instructed to go and stand with the others, leaving only Daniel and Brie waiting to be called forward.

"Last but not least, management," Ronda said. "Brie, you are going to manage the hotel side of the business. I want to focus particularly on standards. You have nice rooms for a three star hotel. Make sure they are presented properly to guests by supervising your housekeeping team. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty to help them out if you have to. And make sure your guests are given a friendly and professional welcome by Stephanie. You only get one first impression."

Brie nodded seriously. "Got it. I can do that." She looked over at the staff that would be under her leadership. "We can do it, right?"

Positive responses came from all of them.

"Daniel, you're managing the restaurant of the business," Ronda said, swiftly moving on. "Hunter runs the kitchen as Head Chef, but any problems he has with his staff, his equipment, his supplies, he comes to you and you deal with it. The same with Melina and your new Head Waitress when you hire one. Any staff problems or serious customer complaints, you deal with them. Okay?"

"Absolutely," Daniel said with determination.

Pleasantly surprised, Ronda found herself thinking that she maybe even believed him. Before she dismissed everyone, she had another surprise for them. "Okay then, I'm out of here," she announced.

"You're leaving?" Brie asked incredulously. "Ronda, we need you. You can't leave already."

Ronda smiled and gestured for everyone to stand together once more. When they had done so, she said, "Let me tell you what's going to happen. I'm going to check out now and give you all the rest of the day to work like you've never worked before in your new roles. Then, tomorrow, I'm going to show up like a guest who has never been here before, and we're going to start the entire process over. I want to find Brianna's operating to the standard I expect of a three star hotel and restaurant."

Daniel had to admit that sounded like a clever idea to test everyone, not least him. "Let's do it," he said.

"I'll leave you to it," Ronda said, wasting no time in heading for the restaurant's exit. She seriously contemplated using the Terminator's 'I'll be back,' but decided that it was too much of a lame thing to do, even for a show like The Hotel Inspector.


	10. Chapter 10

Ronda started her third day at Brianna's by giving a piece to the camera. She was standing outside, leaning against the small sign that was supposed to identify the hotel to potential customers. The sign was the first thing she had been critical of on her arrival two days earlier. "I'm back here at Brianna's," she began. "The first thing I noticed when I just drove back in here is, again, just how awful this sign is. Luckily for Daniel and Brie Bryan, the owners, I have a team of people coming this afternoon to put up a new, much better one. They will also be redecorating that dingy reception area so that customers actually feel like they're getting a warm welcome when they walk in. Speaking of warm welcomes, yesterday, I helped Daniel and Brie to reorganise their staff into more appropriate roles relative to their abilities. One of the people I'm most eager to see in their new position is Stephanie, the former Head Waitress, who seemed to have a real attitude problem. I'm hoping that moving her to the reception desk has helped her to get that out of her system. I think it's time we went inside to find out."

The camerawoman followed Ronda across the parking lot and into the reception area. The first indication Ronda got was good. Stephanie was standing at the desk wearing a smart black business suit. She looked liked a model professional. It was the starkest of contrasts to the first time the hotel inspector had entered the Brianna's, when Nikki had been slouching in the chair at the desk, taking selfies on her phone. The only downside was the absence of any other guests, but Rome wasn't built in a day. The changes Ronda had made were only just being put into effect.

"Hello, Ronda," Stephanie smiled when she saw the familiar face, followed by the woman with the TV camera. "Welcome back. How are you?"

"Hello, Stephanie," Ronda said, returning the smile in kind. "The new job seems like it's treating you well, and you really look the part. This is definitely a more professional start than we got off to last time."

"Yes, well, once I started working here on reception yesterday, I realised how much I used to hate waiting tables," Stephanie said reflectively. "Admin work is what I've always been good at. I guess I should thank you for seeing that and getting me reassigned."

"Nothing to thank me for," Ronda said easily. "I'm here to help Daniel and Brie save their business. Getting people into the right jobs was a much needed change for us. Tell me, have you seen much of an increase in business over the last couple of days? I'm just wondering how effective the advertising campaign we did for you has been."

"I've checked in two pairs of businessmen this morning," Stephanie reported. "There's some sales conference or something happening at the convention center a few miles up the road. That's probably the sort of business we should be targeting for the hotel, isn't it?"

Ronda nodded. "You said it. The good thing is, word of mouth can help you a lot with that. Think about it, if those guys enjoy their stay here, they will tell their colleagues and associates to consider it if they hear about them coming to town. It's possible that we could become the go-to place for conventions. That would be huge for us."

Stephanie liked the way Ronda talked about Brianna's as 'us' or 'we' when she was there. It really gave the impression that she cared about the business. That in turn made Stephanie feel bad for some of the attitude that she had given to the hotel inspector on the first day of the process. "Look, Ronda," she said. "I want to apologise for some of the things I said to you in the restaurant the other say. I know you're here to help."

"Forget it," Ronda said simply. "Now, I'm here to experience the hotel as a first time guest would, so why don't we take it from the top as if we've never met."

"Okay," Stephanie agreed. She took a deep breath to signal the change in conversation, then greeted Ronda with a winning smile. "Welcome to Brianna's."

"I have a reservation. Rousey," Ronda said politely.

"Great," Stephanie said, surprising Ronda again with amount of charm she managed to put into it. "One moment please."

Stephanie quickly checked something on the computer screen behind the desk, clicked her mouse a few times, then produced a key card, a registration form and a pen. "You're in room two eighteen, Ms Rousey," she said. "Could you please fill in this registration form?"

"Sure," Ronda said. It took her a minute to complete the form. When she was done, she set the pen down on top of it.

"Thank you," Stephanie. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No, thank you," Ronda said.

Stephanie gestured towards the elevator. "The elevator is over there. If there's anything you need, you can call me from the phone in your room by dialing one one zero."

Ronda nodded her gratitude and headed for the elevator, pulling her case along behind her, with the camerawoman dutifully tagging along behind. Once they were in the elevator, she took on her role as the shows narrator and asked, "How did you find your second check-in experience at Brianna's, Ronda?"

"It was a lot better than the first one, wasn't it?" Ronda said. "Efficient, polite, you could hardly believe it was the same Stephanie we saw bossing everyone around in the kitchen and arguing with customers in the restaurant. If everyone else has approached the relaunch of Brianna's as well as she has, we might be getting somewhere."

The elevator arrived on the second floor and Ronda stepped out into the hallway. There was a housekeeping cart about half way along, outside of an open door to one of the rooms. Just as Ronda approached, Brie walked out of the room. She was wearing an apron and a pair of rubber gloves. Thea walked out behind her, carrying a stack of dirty towels that needed to be taken for laundry.

"Hello, Brie, Thea," Ronda greeted them, then spoke to the owner. "Getting your hands dirty I see, metaphorically at least."

"Yeah," Brie smiled. "I told the housekeeping team yesterday after you left that we were going to go over every room and start again with a clean slate. I figured that would be the easiest way to make sure the rooms are all up to standard: get them there, then keep them there. Thea and I have been working together, and Charlotte and Alexa are working together upstairs."

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Ronda said, impressed with the improvement in Brie's management of her hotel, and with her willingness to work with her people herself. "I'll go and inspect my room now. Then, if you don't mind, I'd like to have a word with you."

"Sure, whenever you're ready," Brie said.

Ronda resumed her journey along the hallway, heading for her room. "Here we are," she announced when they reached the door with 218 on it. She lead the camerawoman inside and wheeled her case over to the bed before taking a moment to look around the room. It was laid out in exactly the same way as the one she had previously occupied back along the hallway.

"As before, the room looks well presented at first glance," she said, looking into the camera. "But as we learned back then, the devil is in the detail, and that was where the housekeeping team were falling short. Let's see if they've fared better this time, shall we?" With that, she unzipped the front compartment on her case and pulled out a pair of blue rubber gloves. "I've got my favourite accessories with me again," she said sarcastically as she put them on.

"Check the sheet first," the camerawoman suggested, remembering the frightful semen stain that had confronted them in the first room Ronda had been given.

"Good idea," Ronda said. "The bed has been made up perfectly," she pointed out prior to lifting the covers up. The sheet looked to be brand new. "I think that's much better, don't you?" she asked the camera. "It's definitely better to be able to sleep in a bed without risking catching an STD. Or maybe that's me being picky?"

Next, Ronda walked over to the TV. "I pulled them up on dust on top of the wardrobe last time, so I'm go to assume they made sure I wouldn't catch them on that one twice. Let's try behind the TV instead, and see if they really have dusted this room properly." She put her hand behind the TV and ran a gloved finger along it. "Spotless," she announced after checking the result herself, holding it up to the camera as confirmation. "So far, Brie's been as good as her word. She's set high standards. If they can keep this up every day, they will see their customer satisfaction reviews getting better very quickly. Now, the bathroom."

The two women walked over to the bathroom and Ronda lifted the toilet lid. "Remember last time I inspected the toilet? It had not been cleaned under the rim, showing an unacceptable lack of attention to detail. Yes, I know guests aren't going to go sticking their fingers in the toilet, but that's not the point. A hotel room should be impeccably clean." She crouched down and ran a finger around roughly a quarter of the toilet, right under the rim. She held up the result to the camera once more, showing one tiny dark mark on the light blue rubber. "I'd call that acceptable," she announced.

Standing back up again, she looked at the bathtub and shower. "This looks like a brand new shower curtain," she said. "That's good. I'm not a fan of shower curtains, but they are acceptable as long as they are changed between every guest. The bath and the tiles also look like they've had a good clean."

"No hairs in the drain this time?" the camerawoman asked.

"Why don't we check?" Ronda said. She moved the shower curtain out of the way and leaned over the bath so that she could look into the drain. "Nothing that I can see," was the verdict. She stood back up and looked at the camera. Smiling, she said, "I'm happy to stay here tonight. They've done a very good job with it. It just goes to show how much a good kick up the ass can do. They already had all of the basics of a three star establishment here at Brianna's. It's a nice building, with nice rooms. What was letting it down was ultimately the management, and resulting from that, laziness and lack of commitment from the staff. Daniel and Brie are nice people, and that was being taken advantage of. Hopefully I've managed to drill into everyone's heads that unless they get themselves sorted out and start working hard, they'll be out of a job."

"Right," Ronda said, walking out of the bathroom, peeling her gloves off as she went. "My next thing to do is get Brie in here." She tossed the gloves onto the bed and walked over to the room's main door. Out in the hallway, she saw that the cleaning cart had moved slightly further away as the two woman team had progressed onto their next room. Thea was at the cart, picking up some clean bedding.

"Thea," Ronda called out.

"Something wrong," Thea asked with a hint of nervousness, clearly wondering what she might have missed when she had cleaned the room.

"No, the room is fine. You've done a good job with it," Ronda assured her. "Can you ask Brie to come here for a minute?"

"Sure," Thea said, promptly disappearing into the room that was currently being worked on.

It only took Brie a moment to emerge, minus the apron and gloves, hurrying towards Ronda with a worried expression on her face. "Ronda, is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, Brie. If my room is representative of the work you've been doing, you're doing a great job," Ronda said. She gestured for the hotel's manager to join her in the room, then closed the door behind them.

"We've been doing all of the rooms to this standard," Brie promised. "It's like you said the other day; attention to detail is key, especially if we want repeat business from customers."

"That's good to hear," Ronda said. "What I wanted to talk to you in private about is the other half of the business. How was the restaurant at dinner last night? More specifically, how did Daniel handle things?"

"It went well, from what I've heard," Brie said. "Not brilliantly, but well. I think there were a few teething problems with Sasha getting to know Hunter and the way he runs his kitchen, but I would expect that. Melina had the waitresses running like clockwork, which I'm sure doesn't surprise you. She even had Daniel waiting tables again. He said to me in bed last night that he's thinking about not looking for a Head Waitress to replace Melina when she leaves; he's thinking of doing that job himself as restaurant manager. He said he was planning to ask her to work with him while she's here. He really is trying, Ronda. I think it just got to him so bad that we were in trouble, he started retreating away from it. You've not really seen the man I married yet."

Ronda felt touched by that glowing testimony and the conviction Brie had put into it. "I'll talk your word for that," she said gently. "Frankly, Daniel does concern me a lot, but if what you've just told me is accurate, those are definitely positive signs. What I think I'll do now is go and experience the service and food in the restaurant again first hand. Tell me, when was the last time you ate there?"

"What?" Brie asked, surprised. "I've never eaten in our restaurant."

Ronda raised her eyebrows. "You've never eaten in your own restaurant? You should make a point of doing that at least once a month. What better way to make sure the food is good? And while you're at it, you're able to see how the service is being conducted around you."

Embarrassed, Brie looked down at the floor. "You're right. I'd honestly never even thought of it, but it makes total sense. I should definitely do that at some point."

Turning to the camera, Ronda smiled. "What better time than the present?"


	11. Chapter 11

"That's a good start," Ronda said when she and Brie walked into the restaurant, with the camerawoman dutifully following along behind as ever.

"You mean Nikki?" Brie asked quietly.

"Yeah," Ronda said, looking at the woman in question as she went about setting a table. "It's the first time I've seen her without her tits on display. You actually managed to get her to wear one of the waitress uniforms."

"Give her a break, Ronda," Brie pleaded. "I know she seems like she's hard work. No, she is hard work, or, she has been. But since you left yesterday she's really shown a willingness to work. She's been at it just as hard as everyone else. All she wants is a chance to prove herself."

"By my count this is her third chance," Ronda said. "But you made it perfectly clear that you want her to work here, so we'll see how she gets on."

Nikki looked over, unsure if Ronda and Brie were just talking, or actually wanted to be seated at a table.

That understandable confusion was something Ronda could forgive. "Nikki, come here," she instructed.

"Hi, Ronda," Nikki said nervously as she approached, wondering what she might have done wrong this time.

"We're here to experience the restaurant as regular customers," Ronda announced. "So what I want you to do is treat us as exactly that. Seat us, take our order, and don't tell anyone in the kitchen that it's us they're cooking for. Got it?"

"Got it," Nikki confirmed. "Uh, do you want me to start now?"

"We'd like a table for two, please," Brie helped out.

"No problem," Nikki said, making the transition to waitress serving a customer. "Follow me, please." She lead the way over to one of the tables she had already set. There were four other tables occupied by customers. It was a pretty dismal turnout for a lunch service, but it was a lot better than it had been a couple of days before.

Nikki stopped next to a table meant for four and asked, "Is this one okay for you?"

"This is fine," Ronda said, taking one of the seats.

"Here are your menus," Nikki said, handing them over as Brie sat down opposite the hotel inspector. "I'll be back soon to take your order."

"Thank you," Brie said, finding it strange to try and talk to her sister like she was a stranger.

After Nikki went back to work setting the tables, Ronda said, "Not an amazing turnout, but these things take time to build. Hopefully the food will be good now and a good reputation can start to spread. Our researchers have managed to get us a full house for dinner service again tonight."

"That sounds great," Brie said. "I can't tell you how much Daniel and I appreciate everything you're doing for us."

"Speaking of, where is he?" Ronda asked, looking around the restaurant and seeing no other staff members.

"I'm not sure," Brie admitted. "He and Nikki are the ones who are working lunch today. Melina and the girls are back tonight."

Deciding to ask Nikki about Daniel's absence when she came to take their order, Ronda directed her attention to the menu for a moment. Remembering back to the first lunch she had tried at Brianna's, she decided to order the same things again. It was the easiest way to test how much the quality of the food had improved.

"Are you ready to order?" Nikki asked politely, approaching the table with her pad at the ready.

"We are," Ronda said. Both women ordered drinks, then Ronda asked, "What is the soup of the day?"

"Today we have spiced carrot soup," Nikki said.

"Sounds nice," Ronda said. "I'll get that, followed by the lasagna, then the New York Strip, medium rare."

"No problem," Nikki said, quickly writing down the order. "And for you?" she asked Brie, still finding it strange having to pretend that she wasn't talking to her twin sister.

"I think I'll just get the potato wedges, followed by the chicken burger, please."

"Potato wedges and a chicken burger, you got it," Nikki said. "Can I get you any sides?"

"No, thank you," Ronda said.

"Okay, thanks guys," Nikki smiled before she left to process the order.

"She's actually not too bad at serving, given that she has no experience," Ronda said, giving Brie a reassuring smile. "Maybe we've found a place for her after all."

They chatted away for a few minutes while they waited for their appetisers to arrive. An elderly couple stood to leave a nearby table, having finished their meal. Ronda quickly jumped at the opportunity to get some feedback for Brie. "Excuse me?" she called out. "Do you mind if I ask how you found the food today?"

The old woman seemed to relish to opportunity to talk to someone and immediately walked over to Brie and Ronda's table. "We've eaten here before, and the food wasn't that nice. We said we weren't going to come back, but a friend of mine was here yesterday and she said she liked it. We decided to give them another try ourselves, and yeah, that was a very nice lunch, wasn't it, Ken?"

"It was," her husband confirmed. "I had a burger. It was cooked perfectly. I think I'm going to have to come back next week and try another one; maybe see if I can work my way through all of the burgers on the menu."

"Thanks, guys," Ronda said. "Have a nice day."

"You too," the old woman said, leading her husband away.

"They really liked it," Brie said, not trying to disguise the fact that she was beaming in delight.

"They did," Ronda said. "And now they'll go to bingo or whatever they do with their spare time and tell all of their friends about it. Next thing you know, you'll have all the old people in here at lunch time, with a bit of luck."

"Maybe we could start offering a bit of a discount for the elderly?" Brie pondered.

"Not a bad idea," Ronda said thoughtfully. "Don't rush into that, though. See how many of them start coming. If you have the place full of them paying full price, why offer them a discount? If you see it starting to catch on but not going wild, then you can offer a discount in the hope of pulling in some more."

"Yes, that makes sense," Brie said. "I'll have to talk to Daniel about it." She regretted saying his name as soon as she had done so, knowing that it would remind Ronda that he still had not put an appearance in since they had sat down.

Sure enough, Ronda said, "Where is he anyway? If I find out he's sitting in that fucking office again..." As soon as she made the implied threat, the kitchen door opened and Daniel walked out carrying a bowl on a saucer. "Ah, so he is working," Ronda said quietly so that he would not hear her.

"Uh, hi," Daniel said as he approached their table. "Is this order for you guys?"

"It sure is," Ronda replied before Brie could get a word in. "We're here to sample the restaurant as customers - something Brie tells me you've never done. I want you to make sure you don't tell the chefs that we're eating out here. Understood?"

"Okay," Daniel agreed. "So, uh, who ordered the soup?"

"That's mine," Ronda said. As Daniel set the bowl in front of her, she asked, "How are you finding your new role as restaurant manager? I couldn't help noticing there was quite a long time Nikki was out here by herself after we walked in."

"I was helping out in the kitchen," Daniel said. "Bayley isn't in this morning."

"What were you doing?" Ronda asked, sensing nervousness from him. He expected her to give him grief, which meant there was likely a reason for her to do so.

"Helping out, like I said," Daniel evaded as best he could.

"Doing what?" Ronda said, a sterner edge to her tone.

"I was washing dishes," Daniel admitted.

Ronda rolled her eyes. "For fuck's sake, Daniel, you're the restaurant manager. You don't wash dishes. Besides, first of all, it's not busy out here. Sasha or Hunter should easily have time to wash dishes. And second, if they do need a hand with something like that, you assign one of your waitresses to it. You should be out here at all times."

"I know," Daniel said timidly.

"Do you think you're going to see Melina in there washing dishes tonight?" Ronda pressed on. "No. Because tonight this is her restaurant to supervise. Right now it's yours. Brie told me you're thinking of not replacing Stephanie as Head Waitress; that you want to take on the responsibility yourself as restaurant manager. If you want to do that, you need to get your head in the game, and fast."

Getting a hard time from Ronda every time they spoke was starting to wear thin for Daniel. Rather than start an argument in front of customers, he said, "You should eat your soup before it goes cold."

As he walked away, Ronda saw that Brie looked very downcast on the other side of the table. "You do know I'm trying to help him?" the hotel inspector asked as she made a start on her soup.

"You're always so hard on him," Brie complained. "He's doing his best, and you lay into him for everything he does."

"I'm not her to kiss his ass, or yours for that matter," Ronda explained calmly. "I didn't ask to come here; you applied to be on the show because you needed my help. The help you need the most is for your husband to get his head out of his ass and start acting like he's the manager, not the pot washer. You've done a great job upstairs by taking charge of the housekeeping, and you can see the results in the improved condition of the rooms. But down here? You tell me, would you feel confident in handling a full service tonight if Melina wasn't here to supervise?"

"No," Brie mumbled, sounding ashamed to admit it.

"No," Ronda agreed. "But here's the good news. The reason I'm constantly on Daniel's back and Melina will be too is that we're going to get Daniel to be the manager you need. By the time Melina leaves and comes back to work for me, you will thank us both for giving him a hard time, and so will he. I promise you that."

Brie knew she should trust the hotel inspector, but it was a lot easier said than done when it was her own husband who was having such a tough time. Deciding to say nothing more, she watched Ronda eating her soup for a minute or two. "How is it?" she eventually asked.

"It's good," Ronda said, pleasantness returning to her voice. "I don't know if Hunter or Sasha made this, but whoever did makes good soup. How did Sasha get on last night at dinner? Other than the teething problems with Hunter that you already mentioned, I mean."

"By all accounts, she's a talented chef," Brie said. "Hunter said she was rushing things a bit, probably trying to impress on her first day, but yeah, he said she has talent. With those two and Bayley in there, I think we're set as far as chefs are concerned."

"I think we should wait until we've finished our meals before we decide that," Ronda said.

* * *

"I'm being totally honest when I say I really enjoyed that," Brie said, leaning back in her chair after polishing off the last of her burger.

"It was a nice meal," Ronda was happy to say. "I can't tell you how much the food here has changed since the last time I tried it just two days ago. Back then it was disgusting muck with no effort, care or attention put into it. I wouldn't have fed it to my dog. But today was totally the opposite. Hunter really can cook when he tries. The service was good, too. Overall, a positive experience if we really were customers."

"It's great to hear you say that," Brie said proudly.

"As with all of the other areas of this business, what was lacking was hard work and discipline," Ronda went on without paying attention to what Brie had said. "I don't doubt that you and Daniel can make a success of this place after I leave, but if you're going to do it, it's the two of you that have to drive it forward. I know it seems like I'm labouring the point, but if you manage your staff correctly, being firm but fair, you have a lot of potential here. But if you don't, you'll be out of business within months. You're at a real crossroads here, Brie. I've seen what you can do with how well you have the housekeeping staff working upstairs. You set the standard with those members of staff, and I've set the standard down here in the kitchen. Now you need to keep them there, yes?"

"I understand," Brie said with determination. "I don't think you're labouring the point. I think you're trying to drill it into my head, and you're trying to get through to Daniel. We both appreciate it, even though it might not seem like it sometimes. It's hard to come to the realisation that you're the reason your own business is failing." Her voice broke as she said the final few words and she had to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye.

"Don't cry," Ronda said gently. "I understand what you're saying, but focus on the positives. We're going to get on top of it before it's too late, and Brianna's is going to stay open, right?"

"Right," Brie croaked, wiping another tear away. "Should we go and tell the chefs they did a good job?"

Ronda shook her head. "No. We'll wait and see how they handle a full service tonight before we do that. What I do want you to do is go and fetch Daniel from the kitchen. I've got a surprise waiting for you both outside."

"A surprise?" Brie asked warily.

Ronda laughed at her reaction and clarified, "It's a nice surprise. Go and fetch Daniel for me."

"Okay," Brie said. She got up and hurried off towards the kitchen, leaving the camera to focus on Ronda.

"This process has been hard on those two, which is hard for me," she said to the audience. "I don't like seeing nice people like them upset, but the truth of it is that I had to get it into their heads that they need to run the place properly. But my people will be out there right now with the new sign for Brianna's, so hopefully that puts a smile back on their faces when they see it. If it doesn't, then the full dining room tonight definitely should do. If they pass that test, I think my work here will be done."


	12. Chapter 12

Ronda lead Daniel and Brie out of the front entrance of Brianna's, happy to notice on her way through reception that Stephanie was checking in a young couple. "When I first came here, I honestly struggled to find the place," she was telling the owners. "The sign you had wasn't visible enough from the road, and even if you did see it, it only had the name Brianna's on it. That's not effective at all. Remember, your sign is also a form of advertising."

As they walked across the parking lot, Brie and Daniel could see that a black velvet cover had been placed over the top of the sign for their hotel, which also appeared to have significantly grown in size. "You got us a new sign," Brie realised, not trying to hide her delight.

"We did," Ronda was happy to confirm. "This, I think you'll agree, is a much better one. Stand in front of it, and I'll unveil it for you," she instructed when they reached the sign.

The two owners did as she had said. Standing beside his wife, Daniel put an arm around her shoulders. He knew that seeing the new sign was likely to make her emotional. He wasn't wrong. Ronda pulled the velvet cover off the sign with a flourish, to reveal a shiny silver sign with dark red writing which read, 'Brianna's Hotel & Restaurant.' There was also a light at the bottom of it to illuminate it when it was dark outside.

"Oh, Daniel, it's wonderful!" Brie exclaimed, the words almost catching in her throat as her eyes filled with tears. She turned in her husband's arms and hugged him. "Thank you, Ronda. I love it," she said, even though she now had her back to her.

"Yes, thank you," Daniel said over his wife's shoulder. "This is definitely a lot better than the old sign."

"You're welcome, guys," Ronda said kindly. "Not only does this sign look a lot better than the previous one in terms of people being able to find where you are, it looks a lot more professional as well. Stephanie was telling me earlier that you've had some business from people who are attending a convention at a place not too far up the road. There's potential for you to get a lot of that kind of business. To do so, it's critical that you convey yourselves as professional in all respects, and that starts with the sign. It's the very first impression people get of your establishment. Then they go into that dingy reception area. I've decided to have something done about that, too. My team are going to come back tonight to redecorate it and brighten it up for you."

"Oh, Ronda," Brie said, wiping her eyes, now facing the hotel inspector again. "I really feel like we're going to make a success of Brianna's, thanks to your help. It was our dream, it turned into a nightmare, now it's becoming a dream again. I'll always be so grateful to you for that."

Ronda walked over and offered a hug of her own, surprised to find herself getting choked up. "Come here, Brie," she said. The women embraced each other, then Ronda promised, "You are going to make this work, I'm sure of that. The foundations are all in place now. I'm going to stay for the dinner service tonight because I think there are a couple of things left to take care of, then I'll be leaving."

"So soon?" Brie asked.

"Like I said, I think we've dealt with the majority of the problems here. It's up to you to maintain the new standards that have been set, not me."

"I guess we should start getting ready for dinner then," Daniel said, under the distinct impression that he was one of the 'couple of things' that she still wanted to deal with. Being under constant scrutiny was really starting to get under his skin.

* * *

The kitchen was a hive of activity when Ronda delivered her opening piece to the camera for that night's dinner service. She had made sure to stand off to the side near to the walk in refrigerator to make sure that she didn't get in the way of the three chefs or the wait staff, who were all hard at work. "Dinner service is in progress here at Brianna's," she began, talking loudly so that she could be heard over the chatter and other sounds that came with a busy kitchen. "As you can see, we're busier than ever. The restaurant is full to capacity for the first sitting, and all three chefs are having to be at their best to keep up. The good news so far is that they are keeping up. We got through all of the appetisers without any complaints, which was definitely an encouraging sign."

A loud crash interrupted her as two plates fell to the floor and broke. By the time Ronda walked around the hot plate and looked over to where the sound had come from, whichever member of the wait staff had dropped the plates had managed to pull off a disappearing act. The pieces of plate and what had been two meals now lay on the floor, ruined.

"How did that happen?" Hunter demanded angrily, looking over from behind the line.

"Does it matter?" Ronda shouted back, walking over to see what the meals were that had fallen on the floor. "Looks like a cheeseburger and a lasagna," she advised him.

"That's table eight's order," Hunter said loudly for the benefit of his sous-chefs. "I need it doing again. One cheeseburger, one lasagna, quick as you can!"

"Good," Ronda said to him, admiring his quick and decisive action. Wasting time getting angry about the situation would not change the fact that two meals had been ruined. The problem needed to be solved as fast as possible. But that still left the remains of the two plates and their contents on the floor that someone had chosen to run away from rather than deal with. Daniel chose that moment to come through the door, carrying a tray of dirty glasses and plates on a tray. "Daniel, get someone to clear that mess up, will you?" Ronda instructed.

"Yeah," Daniel replied irritably.

Ronda watched as he deposited his tray by the sink, then walked around to where the cleaning supplies were kept. A moment later, he returned with a sweeping brush and and a dustpan and started to clean up the mess himself.

"Daniel!" Ronda said sternly. "What did I just say to you?"

"You said clean this up," Daniel replied, sweeping away at the mess with his brush. He sounded like he was barely keeping himself under control.

"No!" Ronda yelled, her frustration more than obvious. "I said get someone to clean this up. That doesn't mean do it yourself. You're the restaurant manager for fuck's sake! How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"But I'm almost done," Daniel objected.

"That's not the point," Ronda said, wanting to facepalm so badly. "You're such hard work, you know that? We're talking about delegation here. You are the manager. Delegate to your staff, for God's sake, man."

After being criticised and shouted at so many times, Daniel finally lost his temper with Ronda. He hurled the dustpan to the floor sending bit of plate and food flying all across the floor and yelled, "What the hell do you want from me?"

Unsurprisingly, Ronda fired right back, her face starting to turn red as she screamed, "I want you to run your fucking restaurant! You want me to show you how you delegate? Fine!" She picked up a couple of nearby plates and smashed them on the floor, adding to the mess that was already there. "Watch someone who has a fucking clue!" she roared at Daniel on her way to the door.

Opening the door, Ronda called out, "Melina? Can you come in here?" Several customers had stopped eating, their attention attracted by the raised voices and sounds of crockery being broken. For their part, the chefs had decided to get on with their jobs and stay out of the argument.

The temporary Head Waitress had been standing not too far away from the kitchen. Upon Ronda's summons, she hurriedly walked over. "What's going on in here?" she asked as she entered the kitchen, taking in the state of the floor and the angry looks on both Ronda and Daniel's faces.

"Daniel's still not aware of how to delegate," Ronda said heatedly. "Of all the people in this hotel, he's decided that I'm the one he's going to fucking shout at. So, what I want you to do is show him how a restaurant manager should delegate cleaning up this mess to one of his staff."

Emma walked through the door into the kitchen.

"Emma," Melina said. "Before you do anything else, I need you to clean all of this crap up, okay?"

"Okay," Emma replied. She didn't sound enthusiastic about it, but she had no intention of arguing with the woman who was her boss for the next month.

"Not difficult, is it?" Melina asked pointedly, glaring at Daniel.

"Why is this all about having a go at me?" Daniel asked Ronda, now sounding deflated as his adrenaline rush subsided.

"I'm not having a go at you," Ronda said, speaking calmly now. "I'm trying to get you to run the restaurant. You're not a waiter, you're not a sous-chef, you're the manager. Trying to make you get that into your head is the last problem I have to solve, so I'll tell you what we're going to do. Melina is going to work the rest of the shift as a waitress, and you're going to run the place. Starting right now, you're not going to touch a plate, a broom, anything for the rest of the night. All you're going to do is manage your staff. Understood?"

"Two sirloin steaks in the window!" Hunter called out from behind the line. "Table eighteen!"

Ronda raised her eyebrows at Daniel, daring him to try and pick up the plates himself.

It took the owner a moment to summon the courage, but he was able to say, "Melina, you heard the man. Table eighteen, please."

"Right," Melina acknowledged, happy to go along with Ronda's new idea as long as it worked.

Becky walked into the kitchen a moment later carrying a plate of food that had been rejected by a customer. "Table twelve, smoked salmon is cold," she reported loudly to the chefs.

Ronda had to hold herself back from getting involved. To her immense relief, Daniel actually did something himself. He took the plate from Becky and tested the temperature of the fish with his finger. Turning to face the line, he saw that Bayley was just walking past the hot plate with a stack of clean cutlery. "Bayley," he said firmly, holding the plate out to her. "This salmon went out cold to table twelve. You can't be doing things like that to us, not tonight, okay? Get me another one as quick as you can."

"Okay, sorry," Bayley said, looking a little sheepish.

"What's wrong now?" Hunter asked from the other end of the kitchen where he was working on plating up more steaks.

"We need another salmon for table twelve," Bayley said. "I'll get on it now."

"Come on guys, let's go" Daniel said loudly, geeing them on.

Turning to the camera, Ronda gave a little wink and said, "Fucking finally. I think we might have a manager on our hands."

* * *

Later that night, after the restaurant had closed for the night, Ronda stood at the reception desk with her case beside her. She had just checked out of the hotel and was ready to leave. Several of the staff members were there to see her off.

"Thank you, Ronda," Stephanie said when she had completed the check-out process.

"No, thank you, Stephanie," Ronda smiled. "We got off to a rocky start, but I want to say I'm very impressed with what I've seen from you since we moved you out here to reception. Keep it up, yes?"

Stephanie nodded. "Will do."

Ronda turned to face the small group of people who had been waiting behind her. Brie was the first to step forward, offering and getting another hug. "Thank you again, Ronda. You'll never know how much your help means to me. Please come back and see us again?"

"I'll do that," Ronda said. She moved on to Daniel, who offered a handshake.

"Ronda, I'm sorry about yelling at you earlier. I was out of line. I do appreciate you coming and helping us out. I want you to know that."

"You got it," Ronda said graciously, accepting the handshake. "You did a great job tonight, after our little altercation. Melina will continue to work with you until she leaves, but when she does? Remember that you set the tone, okay? You are the manager."

Daniel nodded seriously. "Okay."

Hunter was the last person in line to say goodbye. "Ronda, thanks for helping me to find my love of cooking again. These last few days have given me a real new lease of life, you know?"

"Glad to hear it," Ronda said pleasantly. "You're a very good chef when you try, Hunter. Make sure you keep trying. And most importantly, make sure you nurture Bayley. She's shy and timid, but she's a good chef. You can make her a great chef if you invest your time to teach her. Give her the confidence she needs in her own ability."

"And Sasha too," Hunter agreed. "I'm happy to work with them both. I actually found out that I enjoy it."

"Good man," Ronda said, before addressing the group as a whole. "Goodbye everyone, and good luck."

The camerawoman remained where she was, filming Ronda walking out of the door, pulling her case along behind her, with a chorus of goodbyes following her. "Right," she said to herself with determination once she was out of sight, her voice still being picked up by her microphone. "Where the fuck are we going next?"

* * *

As the credits rolled, a short voice-over from Ronda played to update the viewers on what had happened at Brianna's since the filming had taken place. It was accompanied by some photographs of the hotel thriving with happy customers and staff members alike. There was also a shot of the newly decorated reception area, which was now much more light, airy and welcoming to guests. In the background, Stephanie stood behind the desk with a smile on her face.

"Following my visit, Brie and Daniel continued to work hard to maintain the standards that were set while I was there. They now market the hotel towards the business market and have managed to secure themselves a recommendation on the website of the nearby convention centre. Recent customer satisfaction reviews are almost all positive. Hunter, Bayley and Sasha are still working in the kitchen, and the two sous-chefs are progressing well in learning their craft. Under Daniel's management, the restaurant now offers a lunch time discount for the elderly, and by all accounts it's proving to be very popular. For their last quarter, Brianna's recorded a profit in their accounts for the first time."

END


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